Sad news, the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant provided by SASSA which sees beneficiaries receive R350 per month will come to an end on 31 January. This grant was targeted towards unemployed South Africans who had no other source of income, now what are they going to do?
SASSA has not yet confirmed a date for when beneficiaries will receive the last payment of the R350 grant.
Payments for the grant might still come after this date but applications to benefit from the grant will no longer be open. With many delayed payments and there being a delay in verifying applications, some South Africans might get payments after January if they applied before 31 January.
Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, has said that there are a number of unclaimed benefits even though they were approved. The Department calls on all applicants to pick up their grants which will help them with their basic needs.
SASSA also gave those who applied and were rejected to apply again by using the appeals system. SASSA has said, "If you have successfully lodged an appeal, your application will be reconsidered and you will be notified of the outcome thereof."
Once it's approved, you'll receive payment.
If the applicant qualifies in that month of the application, he/she will be paid for that month & for the current month if they still meet the application criteria. The payment may not necessarily be a double payment/lump sum or on the same day. It can be split over days or weeks.
- SASSA
There has been no sign of the grant being extended as government has said that they cannot afford a further extension. They are however looking to introducing a Basic Income Grant which will be similar to the SRD grant.
During his speech at the ANC national executive committee (NEC) virtual lekgotla over the weekend, the President said the following:
The lekgotla has agreed that, in the context of the continuing COVID pandemic, we need to consider the extension of basic income relief to unemployed people who do not receive any other form of state assistance.
Minister Zulu has previously spoken optimistically about the grant as well and said, "the BIG will result in most of the poorer individuals continuing to access the COVID-19 SRD grant benefits."
Whether this Basic Income will be in the form of an extension of the SASSA R350 grant or a completely new type of grant has not been made clear yet.
The R350 grant has been paid to unemployed citizens as part of a R500 billion social and economic support package which was announced by the president in April when the national lockdown commenced as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
