The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) disburses millions of Sassa grants every month to South Africans who need financial assistance. Now, Sassa grant increases for 2025 have been confirmed.
On Wednesday afternoon, Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana, presented the Annual Budget Speech. During this, he reveals the government's plan for collecting and spending money to support priorities in the country such as social support, education, healthcare, infrastructure, etc.
The Budget Speech seeks to strike a balance between fostering economic growth and providing support for the most vulnerable in society, even with constrained resources.
The Minister also announced the Sassa grant increases beneficiaries can expect. A Sassa grant increase will be implemented on 1 April.
Sassa Grant Increase 2025
The Minister announced the following Sassa increases:
- Old age grant will increase from R2185 to R2315
- War veterans grant will increase from R2205 to R2335
- Disability grant will go up from R2185 to R2315
- Foster care grant rises from R1180 to R1250
- Care dependency grant will increase from R2185 to R2315
- Child support grant will go up from R530 to R560
- The grant-in-aid will increase from R530 to R560
For 2025/26, R284.7 billion will be allocated towards social grants.
SRD Grant
Godongwana also announced that the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant, which was set to come to an end in March 2025, will be extended for another year.
The COVID19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD), in its current form, will be extended by a year to end March 2026. R35.2 billion is allocated for this purpose.
“The SRD will be used as a basis for the introduction of a sustainable form of income support for unemployed people,” said the Minister.
Almost 28 million people will be able to access social grants, according to the Finance Minister.