SASSA grant beneficiaries have been left in the lurch by the South African Social Security Agency. This is the sentiment of millions of SASSA grant beneficiaries who don’t know when or how much their next government grant payment will be.
The last officially communicated Older Person disbursements for March took place on Tuesday 4 March 2025. Likewise, Childcare recipients with young families received their last grants on Thursday 5 March 2025. And, in an unprecedented turn of events, that’s it – there are no further official details on grant disbursements for the rest of the year. What is going on?
SASSA GRANT BENEFICIARIES LEFT HANGING
Of course, SASSA grant beneficiaries will only know more after Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s Budget Speech on Wednesday 12 March. However, the biggest cause for alarm should be a High Court’s ruling back in January regarding making Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grants permanent.
Essentially, the National Treasury has been trying to find ways to fund an ‘expanded and extended’ SRD scheme. And economists say it will cost roughly R36 billion more than it already does. However, after the last budget was rejected by GNU, billions of government funding for ‘core’ grants like Old Age and Child Support could be compromised. Could this be the reason for the delay?
FUTURE OF SASSA SRD GRANTS
Therefore, some very clever solutions need to be found to keep ‘core’ SASSA grant beneficiaries happy. They will want to see inflation-matching increases, but the High Court also wants to see once-temporary SRD grants become a permanent feature in the budget. Previously, the ANC government only considered the R370-a-month SRD a temporary grant, therefore it did not account for it in long-term budgeting.
However, recent regulations under the previous social development minister were deliberately limiting access to the grant because there was only a finite amount of money to go around. The Department of Social Development’s (DSD’s) position is that the grant would simply be unaffordable fiscally and that’s why access had to become restrictive. However, High Court Judge Twala noted in his ruling that despite an increase in grant submissions over the years, there was a marked drop in applicant approvals. In 2022, for example, successful SASSA grant beneficiaries fell from 10 million to 5.5 million due to measures like biometric verification.
ONLY HALF OF APPLICANTS APPROVED
Income of R625 per month is the qualifying criteria for an SRD grant. However, Advocate Gilbert Marcus, who represented the National Treasury in court back in January, says that adjusting SRD would, “Impact SASSA grant beneficiaries of the other seven ‘core’ social grants.” And such a move would undermine broader pro-poor poverty reduction strategies. Marcus reemphasised government’s fiscal challenges, adding that this level of expenditure would severely exceed its already constrained budget.
The next (and last official) SASSA SRD pay dates run from 26-28 March 2025.
SHOULD THE DEPARTMENT RETHINK THE PROCESS?
Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1.
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