The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has continued to roll out the R350 Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant to unemployed citizens as part of a R500 billion social and economic support package. This support package was announced by the president in April of 2020, when the national lockdown commenced.
Many of the initial applicants were rejected from receiving the R350 SRD grant, with some applicants being told that their records show that they are IRP5 registered.
When asked what this meant SASSA replied saying:
irp5 registered means that the system has picked up an alternative income from your details.
IRP5 is a document that is also known as an employee's tax certificate which outlines the employer/employee's related incomes, taxes and the related deductions at the end of each year.
Employees make use of the IRP5 document to complete their income tax return for each year.
IRP5 Registered means that Sassa's system has noticed an alternative income from the applicant's details. This means that the system thinks that the person is still employed.
This can be resolved by the applicant contacting the South African Revenue Service (Sars) and having their documents updated. Sars may require additional paperwork from the applicant's previous employer.
Applicants can contact Sars by calling 0800 00 7277 for assistance with this or upload their updated documents themselves via the Sars online portal.
They may then appeal their application with Sassa once this has been updated, however Sassa reminds applicants to be patient as they are experiencing high volumes of appeals.
Many people have appealed their applications more than once and this has delayed the process of appeals even more.
These applicants are also asked to be patient with Sassa as they are do their best to speed up the process and they assure their applicants that they will be in contact with them as soon as possible. You can also confirm your Sassa status by checking online.
