THE South African Social Security Agency (Sassa), successfully commenced with paying out the first batch of applicants for the Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant (SRD) on Wednesday, August 25.
Applications for the R350 SRD grant opened on Friday, August 6 to benefit the unemployed, most of whom lost their jobs when Covid-19 struck early last year.
In a statement, the state agency said a week after applications were re-opened, it had received 8 931 375 from across the country. Men accounted for 41% while women made up the rest of the 59%.
“Payments of this grant are channeled through direct deposits into approved beneficiaries’ bank accounts, mobile money transfers through cell phones, and through the South African Post Office. The payment process for all those approved started on August 25 and will continue over the coming days. Not everyone should be expected to be paid in one day,” the statement advised.
To avoid over-crowding at Post Offices, the two entities placed a joint strategy. The last three digits of approved beneficiaries’ identity numbers will be used for payment collection on a specific day of the week.
This, Sassa advised, will help minimise the spread of Covid-19 infections and will allow for social distancing on paydays.
“Most importantly, if a person has not received an SMS from Sassa notifying them that the grant is available for collection, it means the grant is not available yet. Approved applicant must wait for a confirmation message stating that the grant is available first,” it said.
It is also inadvisable to go to the Post Office to ‘just check’ if the grant has been made available.
The function allowing applicants to check their status on the system was made available later in the week.
The function was previously not available as the social security agency kept channels open to cope with the high number of applications received.
“Please bear with us for any inconvenience this might have caused. The Post Office will not pay the grant during public holidays, weekends, and when normal monthly social grants payments take place,” it said.
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