Hundreds of South Africans and lobby groups have been expressing their frustration with delayed Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant payments. The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) said the payment process was expected to take time in order to ensure that all beneficiaries receive their monthly grants as quickly as possible. Sassa claims multiple factors have caused the delays.

Per the Sassa website, it is clear that Sassa had initially committed to administering the amount of R350 for six months in order to relieve stress and afford the citizens of South Africa some relief through those uncertain times. Unfortunately, as the pandemic progressed, a lot had to be changed as the country still has millions of people who are still without employment.

Sassa General Manager Brenton van Vrede has explained how the poverty levels of South Africans have been assessed over the years.  Every time threshold regulations are amended, all financial banks have to also update their algorithms, so that they will be able to assess SRD grant applicants.

There is always hope for the grant payment, with just under a million people receiving the grant, there are bound to be those who have not gotten theirs. This could be on account of an error where they did not indicate their bank details or they might even have been sent money by mistake.

People have provided Sassa with the incorrect bank account details and some changing them, which has then resulted in payment failures.

Vrede said during an interview.

However, Sassa doesn’t seem to have an issue of backlogs due to changed regulations, including appeals with the issue of bank account details being a contributing factor in delays. Although Sassa has denied any correlation between this and the banking challenges experienced by numerous beneficiaries.

Sassa has urged applicants of the grant to meet the government agency halfway by being more diligent when they put their bank account details into the application system so that payments can be made.

The Sassa is working around the clock to solve such issues as backlogs and to ensure beneficiaries have access to their money. Applicants will be advised to update their personal information on the SRD website should they at any point change their details.

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