SASSA received near to 6 million R350 grant applications in it's first week which shows the high levels of poverty and unemployment in the country.
SASSA Spokesperson, Paseka Letsatsi, said that as of 15 August, 6 million people have applied for the SRD grant through the various application channels.
They are now in the process of approving these millions of applications with Letsatsi saying applicants should receive communication very soon on whether they've been approved or not.
The agency has to verify the information provided by the applicants through SARS, NSFAS Home Affairs and UIF to make sure that they are not receiving other benefits. Letsatsi says the process of verification is very fast.
The first R350 grant payments are expected in the last week of August.
We have set ourselves a deadline of month end so by month end, we must not be talking with the department, we must be making the payment.
RELATED: When Will New R350 Grants Be Paid?
As for how payments will be made to applicants, he says there are two ways: bank accounts or other merchants through Post Office.
The South African Post Office is engaging with other merchants to have more places available for beneficiaries to get their SASSA grant money and to avoid queues at the Post Offices.
Beneficiaries are urged to wait for an SMS saying their payment is ready to be fetched before they head to Post Offices.
Should you have outstanding payments from the previous round of the SRD grant, you have until the end of August to collect it.
SASSA was receiving 5000 applications per minute which lead to the SRD website being slowed down but applicants are urged to use the other channels such as WhatsApp and GovChat.
