Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu says the division “regrets the pain and hardships” attributable to ongoing challenges and fee delays to beneficiaries of the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant.
Zulu was briefing the media on Monday on progress with the SRD grant in addition to plans to high up the Child Support Grant.
She stated practically 7.5 million people have been receiving the R350 grant month-to-month. She highlighted the challenges skilled by candidates and people authorised for the grant “whom this intervention is the difference between, on the one hand, hunger and indignity, and on another, leading a dignified life”.
Read: Government could calm down standards for R350 grant additional
She stated some challenges highlighted design and implementation difficulties in the early phases of presidency programmes.
The SRD grant was launched in May 2020 and was resulting from finish in March 2022 to satisfy the finish of the nationwide state of catastrophe. The grant was, nonetheless, prolonged in February this 12 months till March 2023.
One of the challenges talked about by Zulu was the interval when the authorities needed to amend the R350 grant rules from the Disaster Management Act to the Social Assistance Act. Consequently, no new R350 grant functions had been processed for a couple of month.
The grant was shifted to the Social Assistance Act from the Disaster Management Act’s rules. Therefore all beneficiaries, even those that had been authorised for the grant, wanted to reapply. All candidates had been additionally required to bear a way take a look at via their financial institution accounts.
Zulu stated the means take a look at needed to be launched in order that the division might maintain inside its finances of R44-billion to pay a complete of about 10.5 million people.
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She stated one other problem was that the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) first needed to procure banking companies to ensure that it to run the month-to-month means take a look at for all candidates. The division beforehand defined that Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana had authorised the contract with the banks in April, however the banks’ authorized companies had been nonetheless working via the contract.
“Consequently, in the first three months of implementing this benefit, we experienced very serious challenges,” stated Zulu.
In May, the Post Office additionally introduced that it’ll now not pay the R350 grant in money in a bid to cut back lengthy queues at its branches the place different beneficiaries accumulate their grants.
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Post Office now not paying R350 grant
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In August, Zulu gazetted adjustments to the grant rules. The revenue threshold for the means take a look at has been elevated to R624 per 30 days, and the financial institution verification, which was used to check an applicant’s eligibility, was eliminated.
Previously, any one who acquired or earned greater than R350 of their financial institution accounts would have been disqualified. With the new threshold, extra people will now qualify.
Zulu urged candidates who’re but to be paid, to examine the standing of their financial institution verification and to make sure that the particulars are appropriate as this might trigger extra delays.
Grant for carers of orphaned youngsters
Meanwhile, Zulu has introduced that relations, who’re caring for orphaned youngsters, can now apply for a Child Support Grant (CSG) Top-Up at Sassa places of work. There are presently about 13 million youngsters presently benefiting from the CSG.
“The department just completed a review of child poverty … which has revealed that as the CSG was expanded to reach more children between 2003 and 2013, child food poverty decreased from 53% to 33% over the same period. This recent review and numerous previous empirical studies have proven that increased government investment in children’s grants has resulted in improved outcomes for children in the areas of poverty, health, nutrition, and education,” stated Zulu in an earlier assertion.
She stated the ‘top-up’ is a further R240 that’s being added to the commonplace CSG of R480. This signifies that solely people caring for orphaned youngsters will receive R720 per 30 days.
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“No social worker’s report or court order are needed to access the top-up,” stated Zulu.
The identical eligibility standards for the CSG will apply. The solely extra proof that the baby is an orphan is for the caregivers to submit loss of life certificates of the baby’s dad and mom. If the caregiver solely has one loss of life certificates, they will full an affidavit at a Sassa workplace with an in depth rationalization.
She added that solely youngsters below 18, who’re taking care of their orphaned siblings in child-headed households, are required to undergo a social employee earlier than approaching Sassa for the grant.
Zulu stated it ought to take a month to course of, confirm and pay the top-up grant.
This article was first printed on Groundup, here.