More than 4 million Covid-19 grants approved
Social Development Minister, Lindiwe Zulu, said 3 429 808 of the approved applications were paid by 12 July.
A STAGGERING R1 billion was paid out in May toward the Special Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) Grant which has seen a total of 4 424 720 applications approved.
Social Development Minister, Lindiwe Zulu, said 3 429 808 of the approved applications were paid by 12 July, although the department has to date received 7 558 555 applications.
“A total of 2 174 046 applications were found to be active on various databases, including those who are currently receiving social grants, receiving Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) benefits or are appearing on the active database of UIF contributors, those who are receiving National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) stipends, (and) those who are found on government employee’s databases (Persal and persol),”said Zulu.
The minister was speaking at the Social Cluster media briefing on socio-economic measures under the enhanced level 3 of the risk-adjusted strategy on Monday.
Also read: #Covid-19: SASSA launches social relief distress grant
“We have so far disbursed R1 200 432 800. These payments are all for applicants who applied in May 2020. South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) will, on a monthly basis, re-assess all applications to ensure that, where circumstances have changed and income is received from any other source, the grant will not continue to be paid,” she said.
Also read: ‘Many Covid-19 grant applicants don’t meet criteria,’ says SASSA
“The re-assessment of all applications has already commenced and the applicants are being re-assessed against SOCPEN (Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens), UIF, NSFAS, Persal and Persol, in preparation for batch release of June payments from this week,” added Zulu.
Set backs faced by the department include slow processing of the grant, bank accounts that failed the verification process, as well as a high number of declined applications.
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