After the Department of Social Development (DSD) opened new applications for the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant, the department confirmed that the government agency had received approximately 11.4 million applications.
This is an indication that a large proportion of the country’s population is indeed in need of social assistance.
In a statement, the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has announced:
We have made progress with regards to SRD grant payments, where approximately 5 298 817 applications were approved and 4 088 873 of those have received payment.
Recently, Sassa admitted having had technical glitches that had resulted in SRD grant payments being delayed, however, the government agency has since apologised for the inconvenience resulting from this.
At the time, beneficiaries expressed their disappointment of returning home with empty hands after waiting in long queues at retail paypoints for their funds.
While social grant payments have been scheduled for the month of August, there aren’t any fixed dates for the SRD grant.
Before beneficiaries head to their various retail paypoints (Boxer, Shoprite, USave, Checkers, Pick ‘n’ Pay and bank ATMs), they have been urged to either verify their payment on the SRD website or wait for an SMS that will notify them on when they ought to make withdrawal of the funds.
