Social development minister Lindiwe Zulu gazetted the new regulation to increase the income threshold for the R350 Social Relief from Distress (SRD) grant from R350 to R624.
This is the food poverty line set by Stats SA in September 2021.
However, the value of the grant remains R350 per person.
There seems to be some confusion around this, which is leading to talk in communities that the grant amount has gone up to R624.
That is untrue.
It simply means that people will now be allowed to earn up to R624 – or have that amount of money in their bank account – and still qualify for the grant.
An increase in the means threshold will now have more people able to qualify for this grant.
The Institute for Economic Justice, and their coalition partners have suggested that the means test should be at least R1335, which is government’s measures of the upper-bound poverty line.
The institute’s research associate Carilee Osborne says: “Increasing the grant’s means test to R624 is a step in the right direction because we can all agree R350 was far too low.
“What we are arguing as the Institute for Economic Justice, with our coalition partners, is that this needs to be a lot higher.
“If the government’s own measures are that the upper-bound poverty line is R1335, we believe anyone below that level should be qualifying for the grant.”
In August 2021, the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant was reintroduced to support the most vulnerable in South Africa during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Millions of people applied for this grant and some of the applications were rejected by the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa).
People appealed this process, and Sassa says that all successful appeals made between August 2021 and March 2022 were paid during July 2022.
However, many people on social media have complained that they have still not received their grant payments.
Elizabeth Raiters from civil movement, Pay the Grant, says they are overwhelmed with complaints from people who have not received their old SRD grant payments.
“Some people have up to eight months worth of outstanding grant payments.
“This would amount to R2800. Many of these individuals were initially declined from receiving the grant but submitted successful appeals,” she says.
It seems a common reason why people are being declined from receiving the SRD grant is because Sassa has detected an amount of money in their banking account that exceeds that current threshold of R350.
Sassa will then decline them and give them an “alternative income identified” SRD grant status.
Raiters says: “I'm telling you right now I work on a daily basis for the people, mothers are crying that they are caregivers yet they are being declined for alternative income sources and they are unemployed so Sassa is really not doing their homework and I really think Sassa systems are flawed.”
On the other hand, Sassa says that caregivers are eligible to receive the grant if they do not have money in their bank account exceeding the income threshold.
Sassa is urging all SRD grant beneficiaries to ensure they provide their correct bank account details.
This, as any mistakes made with your banking account information could result in you not being paid the R350 grant.
Sassa said: “Clients are advised to ensure that they provide correct banking details when submitting their application for the Covid-19 SRD grant, and failure to do this will result in delayed SRD grant payments provided that their application for the grant was approved.
“Grant beneficiaries can update their banking details on the SRD grant website.”
Sassa says its verification and validation process is as follows:
– ID Number, name and surname provided by the client is verified with the Department of Home Affairs data
– ID Number is matched against approved databases such as UIF, SARS, NSFAS etc.
– Fraud Risk Scoring is done with fraud prevention partners
– The client’s ID number and Mobile number is checked against the approved databases
Application is approved or declined with reasons
– You can view your application status on the following channels:
– SRD Website: https://srd.sassa.gov.za
Under Application Status tab:
click here to check status
WhatsApp: send message to 082 046 8553
Call Centre: 0800 60 10 11
The Department of social development is one of the departments who grandstands with great ideas and speeches but fails when it comes to the implementation of their own processes.
There also seems to be a lack of understanding of what the practical obstacles are for those who are applying, and sadly staff truly don’t seem to care.
I am happy that the means threshold has been lifted and if you get less than R624 into your bank account you may now apply for the R350 SRD grant.
But more people applying is going to add more strain on this already hugely flawed system.
We can all just wish for the best.
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