By Akani Nkuna
The SA Social Security Agency (SASSA) has expressed concern over the lack of willingness by affected beneficiaries to subject themselves to grant review processes, which has led to delayed grant payments.
SASSA officials said that although they used different media platforms, public announcements and sent over 140,000 SMSes, many beneficiaries have not responded, while others may have missed the communication due to a change of contact details without updating the agency.
SASSA will now step up its efforts to reach those affected.
“We are working on strengthening our communication approach, including through more robust community-level engagement and increased visibility of information on official and public platforms,” SASSA CEO Themba Matlou said on Monday.
“We will also increase the operating hours (and) employ additional capacity to address long queues that have been recently experienced during this important review process.”
Matlou, who was accompanied by SASSA officials, including the agency’s executive manager for grants administration Brenton van Vrede, told reporters in Pretoria that the review was for targeted beneficiaries suspected of having additional sources of income, which were not disclosed to the agency.
In April, SASSA announced ongoing payment delays for certain social grant beneficiaries, who were required to visit local offices to update their financial information and personal details.
The move followed a review with registered credit bureaus, which flagged 210,000 SASSA beneficiaries receiving income they had not fully disclosed. Some of them were on company payrolls.
Matlou said the Social Assistance Act mandated beneficiaries to disclose their sources of income during the grant application process and if a financial situation later arose that disqualified them.
“A beneficiary may have qualified and approved for a grant at the time of application, but their financial circumstances may have changed afterwards, and this is when they were supposed to inform SASSA of these changes,” he said.
Van Vrede confirmed that during the review process, grant payments have not been completely stopped, but may be delayed from month to month.
“No one is being suspended, everyone is being paid. It’s just (an) additional form of communication to people that there is something wrong with their grant, [therefore] come to SASSA offices and clarify,” he said.
“A suspension would mean your grant for that month will not be paid, and your grant will continue not to be paid until such time that you conduct a review, and we are convinced that you still qualify and then your grant will be reinstated.”
INSIDE POLITICS