The short answer
SASSA suspended SRD grants to beneficiaries suspected of fraud.
The whole question
Dear Athalie
It is said that appeals for SASSA grant applications will be answered in 90 days. I lodged one in September 2024, and it's now February, but it still shows pending.
October and November were paid, but in December and January I was not. I lodged another appeal.
I am not working and have no source of income. Why does it keep declining?
The long answer
On 21 January 2025 SASSA put out a media statement saying that it had suspended SRD grants to beneficiaries suspected of fraud. SASSA said it had temporarily suspended its online verification system (eKYC) and that those whose grants had been suspended must visit a SASSA office to do their biometric verification in person.
The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) noted on 27 January that those beneficiaries whose grants had been suspended were given no notice – their grants were simply stopped. According to the media statement by SASSA, it was the responsibility of beneficiaries to check their status online to determine whether they were affected. But in the same statement, SASSA said that their online verification service (eKYC) had been suspended until further notice. So, the beneficiaries were unable to make sure if they had been affected. The LRC urged the beneficiaries to visit the SASSA offices and also invited them to contact the LRC offices for further assistance.
These are the Legal Resources Centre’s contact details:
Email:info@lrc.org.za
Tel: Johannesburg: 011 836 9831
Cape Town: 021 481 3000.
Durban: 031 301 7572
A GroundUp article by Marecia Damons on 24 January 2025, reported that the #PayTheGrants campaign and the Institute of Economic Justice (IEJ) had taken the Department of Social Development (DSD) to court because the SASSA rules excluded millions of people who should be getting the SRD grant. In the High Court case, Judge Twala noted that up to 15% of successful applicants did not receive their grant payments each month.
Judge Twala said that the SRD grant was meant for poor people and to alleviate hunger. “For this group of society to not receive the grant timeously or at all has dire consequences.”
He ordered the Social Development Minister to consult with the Minister of Finance, and come up with a plan to progressively increase the value of the SRD grant. He ruled that this plan must be delivered to the court in four months.
But on 3 February, the Department of Social Development said it intended to appeal against the SRD case, so we shall have to keep our eyes and ears open…
Perhaps the first thing to do is to go to the SASSA offices in person and get your biometric verification done.
Wishing you the best,
Athalie
Answered on Feb. 20, 2025, 4:06 p.m.
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