The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has instructed unpaid grant beneficiaries to collect their older persons and disability grants on Friday, 8 September 2023. The entity responsible for paying grans said all monies would be available for collection at ATMs, retailers and Post Office Branches.
Sassa grant beneficiaries that were affected by transaction failures on Tuesday and Wednesday… are requested to withdraw their social grant money tomorrow, Friday 8 September 2023, as all account corrections will be up to date and their money will be available through the ATMs, retailers and Post Office branches.
On Tuesday, 5 September 2023, millions of pensioners visited Post Office Branches, Cash pay points, ATMs and retail stores to collect their older person’s grant. However, many were left disappointed and disheartened as technical glitches prevented them from being paid the social grant money they rely on to survive every month.
While Sassa says the matter has been resolved, many people over the age of 65 years old have still not received their money. This comes as the Postbank deals with payment backlogs caused by the delay.
The Postbank explained that technical challenges impacted their ability to pay social grants on Tuesday, 5 September 2023 and Wednesday, 6 September 2023. This meant that recipients of Sassa’s Older Persons and Disability grants were unpaid.
While the technical glitches have been resolved, the backlogs they caused are delaying the reveal of funds into grant beneficiary bank accounts. This means that beneficiaries will have to wait longer before they receive their money.
The fund's reversal backlog mainly affects some beneficiaries who were impacted by transaction timeouts while attempting to withdraw their Sassa money on Tuesday and early parts of Wednesday when the old age grants and disability grants were being paid.
Postbank explained that when individuals attempted to withdraw their social grants when technical challenges occurred, grant funds were not automatically reserved in their bank accounts. The postbank has begun the process of reversing this money into the affected grant beneficiaries' bank accounts.
The processing of the reversals of funds into affected accounts started yesterday and it’s preceding.
Postbank also confirmed that children's grant payments scheduled for Thursday, 7 September 2023 proceeded smoothly across all grant payment channels.
Transactions within retailers have also been restored to optimal levels, which means that customers can access services across all our available channels including ATMs, retailers and Post Office branches.
If you want to check on your grant payment information this can be done via the Sassa official website. We also have information on grant payment dates for 2023 on the Skills Portal website.
