The Social Development Minister stated that the public service employees would soon have to prove that they were eligible for the social grants they received.
Zulu made the announcement in response to a question from Dr Mimmy Gondwe. Gondwe asked for the total number of public servants who applied for and received SASSA administered grants, except the SRD grant.
The public servants received some of the following grants, child support, older persons and disability grants.
Gondwe also requested a breakdown of how many public servants received which grant from the agency.
Zulu stated that “the total amount that SASSA has spent in paying public service employees who applied for and received SASSA administered grants is approximately R200.7 million (paid during July 2021).”
However, the minister announced that it should be noted that all social grants are means-tested, besides the foster child grant.
“Public servants are entitled to receive the foster child grant. Where the foster child grant is paid in conjunction with a care dependency grant for the same child, neither are means-tested, and public servants would not be contravening any laws by receiving these grants,” said the minister.
However, for the rest of the social grants, the means test would need to be applied.
The Social Development Minister said that since the information had been extracted, arrangements were made to suspend the grants, except for the foster child grants, for all public servants.
According to Zulu, those who still qualify would need to go in and review the grant. There they will need to provide current information to determine whether they are still eligible for the grants.
“Measures will also be taken to recover any funds overpaid. Where it is found that the public servants were receiving a grant to which they were not entitled, the matter will be reported to their employing department for disciplinary action to be taken,” she said.
