The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) is responsible for distributing social grants to more than 18 million beneficiaries.
According to the government agency, the social grants ensure that vulnerable individuals access basic goods and services.
As per the Sassa payment schedule, social grants are paid out in the first week of every month, but it is important that grant beneficiaries know when their monies will be available for withdrawal.
The Agency has clarified that if your grant is approved, you will be paid from the date on which you submitted a complete application.
In the case of individuals that have applied for a foster child grant, the grant will be strictly paid from the date of the court order.
Foster care grant recipients are paid their funds via cash at a specific pay point on a particular day, an electronic deposit into a bank or Postbank account and also through an institution acting as the administrator of the grant (e.g. a welfare organisation).
Should the client not be able to collect their monies themselves, they may appoint a procurator at the Sassa office, or give someone power of attorney to collect the grant on their behalf.
In a statement, Sassa has mentioned that beneficiaries don't need to fetch their Sassa grant payments on that specific day and once the money is in the account, it will remain there until it is needed.
Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant recipients don’t have a specific payment schedule for when they can withdraw their monies and they have been advised to wait for an SMS notifying them of their payment date before attempting to withdraw their funds from merchants or ATMs.
Social grant beneficiaries may collect their monies at retail stores, such as Shoprite, Checkers, U-save, Pick ‘n Pay and Boxer as well as bank ATMs.
In February 2023, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced that social grants will be increased as of 1 April 2023 and R30-billion had been allocated for the inflation-linked increases for other social grants.