Pensioners forced to make repeat trips to apply for old age grants
To deal with the high demand in Bellville, SASSA will operate until 6pm
Berenice Paulsen (left) has been helping her sister, 63-year-old Desiree Fredericks, apply for an Older Persons Grant since June. They were among several pensioners who have been forced to return to the SASSA Bellville branch for months trying to complete their grant applications. Photo: Marecia Damons
- Pensioners at SASSA’s Bellville office in Cape Town say they’ve been sent back and forth for months.
- Applicants queue from the early hours and make multiple trips to finalise their Older Persons Grant applications.
- SASSA says its Bellville branch has high demand and limited staff, and it will hold an outreach session at the Parow Community Centre on Friday.
“This is our fifth month trying to get the grant,” says Berenice Paulsen while waiting in a long queue outside the SASSA office in Bellville. She has been trying to help her sister, 63-year-old Desiree Fredericks, apply for an Older Persons Grant (OPG) since June.
“They don’t tell you exactly what you need to bring the first or second time. Every time it’s a different story,” Paulsen said. The sisters say they left home in Parow at 2:15am to join the queue.
They were among dozens of pensioners and applicants who said they’ve been sent back and forth to the SASSA office for months. Each time, after having spent hours queuing, they are unable to finalise their Older Persons Grant applications due to missing documents. They say they’ve had to return several times with new documents.
To ease pressure at busy branches and assist beneficiaries directly, SASSA officials will be at the Parow Community Centre on Friday, 14 November.
When GroundUp arrived at the branch before 7am, several beneficiaries had already been served inside. About 150 people remained outside in three queues: one for new applicants, one for appointments, and another for walk-ins.
Fredericks worked in upholstery for more than 40 years, but stopped two years due to an age-related condition.
At their first visit, the sisters were told to bring a certified copy of Fredericks’ ID and a bank statement. But they were told Fredericks was listed as employed and could not apply for a state pension. At the next visit, the sisters were asked to provide an affidavit and a letter from Fredericks’s former employer. They also collected a letter from the Department of Labour confirming that Fredericks was no longer employed. The fourth time they returned, SASSA officials sent them away to bring a copy of her late husband’s death certificate.
“I don’t work. We need to borrow money every time we come here; it’s very difficult,” said Paulsen.
Ralph (who asked his surname be witheld), from Bellville, said he has been trying to apply for the grant since July.
“They told me I had to bring a UIF form. When I returned the second time with the form, they said I needed to bring my wife’s UIF papers. The third time, the staff said I need to bring a different UIF form.”
Ralph said he left his home in Delft at 4:45am, paying R18 for a single taxi trip to Bellville. “The queue went all the way down the road and around the corner. You must come early. If you come later, you’ll be waiting until closing time tonight.”
He said his previous employer let him go in May. He now does occasional piecemeal jobs, earning about R300 a day.
Also in the queue were Wanda and Abraham Hofmeister from Uitsig. They said Abraham’s grant has been paid late since July. They later discovered that his grant is under review.
“A staff member told us we had to bring our bank statements, certified copies of our IDs and his pension letter from the government. So we got all of those documents. But when we came back, they told us that because we sold our house, they needed the transfer documents,” said Wanda.
SASSA Western Cape spokesperson Shivani Wahab said the Bellville office “issues beneficiary education to each client on arrival, which contains detailed information on the qualifying criteria and requirements for all social grants”.
On Monday, 10 November, the branch assisted 300 people.
Wahab said the office has a “high influx and is operational until 6pm but with minimal staff”.
She added that SASSA is conducting social grant reviews, which has increased the influx to metro offices, and that “an online application system is available as an alternative platform for all social grant applications.”
The documents required to apply for different grants can be found on SASSA’s website.
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