The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) announced that Post Offices will no longer be paying Sassa grants in cash to beneficiaries. This is due to Sassa and the Postbank phasing out all physical cash payment points (CPPs), including cash withdrawal services at Post Offices.
This will commence in January this month and concluding by the end of March 2024, with Sassa recently saying:
Please note that During January and March 2024, SASSA will be closing all remaining SASSA and Postbank Cash points.
This is said to be affecting less than 2% of all Sassa social grants recipients.
Postbank's spokesperson, Bongani Diako did however make it clear that the Post Office will still continue to provide non-cash services such as card reinsurances, PIN resets, and statement printing.
A total of 870 cash pay points will be closing. For those beneficiaries affected, Sassa released a schedule for when these points across South Africa will be closing.
Here's a breakdown of the closures, per province:
- Eastern Cape - 277
- Free State - 26
- Western Cape - 0
- Gauteng - 6
- Northern Cape - 13
- North West - 96
- Limpopo - 216
- Mpumalanga - 53
- Kwazulu-Natal - 183
Why is this happening?
The reason behind cash no longer being made available at Post Offices is due to the Post Office's financial struggles, having incurred a R6 billion loss over the past three years, with an R2.2 billion loss in the 2022/2023 financial year.
As part of its business rescue plan, the Post Office is set to close 420 loss-making branches and retrench 6,000 employees, with the potential for a R3.8 billion government bailout. The plan also includes phasing out revenue streams that have “failed to produce revenue”.
The revenue services they are referring to include Over Counter (‘OTC’) payment services, which include SASSA and cash pay points (‘CPP”) payments.
Where should Sassa grant beneficiaries get their Sassa money then?
Sassa grant beneficiaries will still be able to withdraw cash, just not at a Post Office. They can instead use their Sassa gold card at ATMs or retail stores such as Boxer, Pick N Pay, Spar, Shoprite, Usave and Checkers.
Sassa gold card social grant recipients using CPPs and Post Office branches must now use those cards at any place that accepts a bank card. This includes making purchases in any retailer that has a point of sale to swipe for goods or withdrawing funds from any retailer that provides a cash-back functionality.
But aren't Sassa gold cards expiring?
Sassa announced earlier this year that the validity of gold cards has been extended and would no longer expire on 31 December 2023. This means that Sassa grant beneficiaries with expiring cards can continue to use their Sassa cards for Sassa grant payments.
Sassa and Postbank will communicate the dates for replacing expired cards in due course.
They continued to say, "Clients who did not effect any change on their payment methods should still receive their grants in their Sassa gold cards"
