Sassa: September R350 social relief of distress grants still outstanding

The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) said on Monday it’s running a month behind on issuing the R350 social relief of distress grant to recipients.

Payments for September were still outstanding, but Sassa hoped to resolve this by the end of October.

Executive manager for grants administration at Sassa Brenton van Vrede said the current backlog had been reduced from three months to one month.

Van Vrede joined the social development minister in Pretoria to give an update on relief to indigent families.

Social grants agency Sassa said the one-month delay in paying the R350 social relief grants was caused by changes to the qualifying criteria.

The biggest of those changes includes the means test threshold.

The government came under fire earlier in the year when it tightened the threshold from R350 to R624.

This meant applicants with an income above R600 would not be eligible for the grant.

Since June 2022, more than 7.5 million recipients have been paid but that excludes September.

Van Vrede said the agency was working around the clock to resolve the backlog: “We will pay September. We’ve just started with assessments over the current weekend, and we hope to wrap it up in the week ahead.”

He said the agency hoped to be back on track by the end of October.

-EWN

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