The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has urged beneficiaries to note that the R350 grant will remain in place until 31 March 2023.
However, 31 March marks the cut off date for applications. Sassa has also stated that if there are any outstanding payments, the beneficiary will still be paid for those outstanding months, but payments will only be before March 2023 and the prior period.
R44 billion has been allocated to serve 10.5 billion people through to the end of March 2023 by implementing the grant's third iteration. The distribution did not reach the 10.9 billion eligible recipients.
In addition to this, the agency added more eligibility requirements for the R350 grant since the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) mandates that it keep within the budgetary allocation. This included establishing a R350 means test cutoff for all candidates.
This was done by regularly examining each applicant's bank account to see if their monthly income was R350 or above.
Because the Department of Social Development (DSD) had to negotiate with the banks to conduct these means tests and because banks always opt to safeguard their customers' funds, this evaluation was highly challenging.
Serious difficulties were encountered in the first three months, which caused a two-month delay in grant execution.
The grant's low uptake, which is lower than the budgeted amount, is the biggest issue. Unfortunately, despite the fact that there are more and more impoverished individuals in the communities, the unspent funds are to be returned to the National Treasury.
