The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has revealed that a payment glitch prevented thousands of grant beneficiaries from receiving their social grants in January.
Sassa distributes 19 million permanent grants which include the Older Persons pension grant, Disability grant, War Veterans grant, Care Dependency grant, Foster Child grant, Child Support grant, Child Support grant Top-Up and Grant-in-aid.
It is estimated that 70,000 social grant beneficiaries faced payment issues in January, with frustration mounting as their cards declined during ATM withdrawals.
Paseka Letsatsi, the Sassa spokesperson said the non-payments stemmed from discrepancies in bank verifications, such as misspelt names or missing letters. However, they assured grant beneficiaries that the agency was actively addressing the issue by contacting affected individuals to rectify human errors promptly.
We have tracked down all those that have not received their money, and the number is 70,000…Once we have called you, you will receive your money in no time.
Letsatsi called on unpaid beneficiaries not to panic, urging them to visit their post office branch if they had not received their money.
#PayTheGrants and Black Sash say they received numerous complaints from across the country about suspended grants. Although Sassa denied any exceptional circumstances in January's payment run, Elizabeth Raiters from #PayTheGrants asserted that SASSA officials confirmed a "system error" that was being resolved.
The situation raised concerns about timely resolution before the next payment run in February. Raiters expressed concern over the impact the payment challenges beneficiaries, especially as children returned to school amid financial uncertainties.
Thandi Hanekom, Black Sash Western Cape coordinator, also noted an increase in reports of erroneous grant suspensions.
Sassa's national payment system has faced recurring problems over the past two years.
In September 2023, a "technical glitch" left thousands of social grant recipients without money, disrupting payments for those using Sassa Gold cards.
