How to handle illegal deductions from grant

IN reply to Nomonde Galada (“Need help with grant deductions”, February 13), I too went through this with my housekeeper’s daughter.

It was discovered that amounts were being deducted from her child grant by a certain cellphone number that had bought airtime and prepaid electricity from her grant. This is fraud. The solution requires you to do the following:

Phone the Sassa number on your card – preferably use a landline as it may take you 20 minutes to get through.

Ask to speak to a consultant about the unlawful deductions coming off your grant. It will probably be for airtime and prepaid electricity.

They will have a cellphone number of the person who made purchases from your grant. Ask them to block that cellphone number and make a note of the number.

Ask for the consultant’s name and note the date of request. Get a reference number for your complaint.

State that you intend laying a complaint and you intend to claim all unlawful deductions from Sassa.

Get the name of the supervisor who deals with these claims.

Draw up an affidavit which is a statement of what has happened and how much you are claiming for these unlawful deductions, in your case since at least December 2015 or earlier if they went back before that date.

You will need to sign it before a commissioner of oaths at a police station.

Post this to Sassa for the attention of the supervisor who deals with these complaints.

If deductions continue to be drawn off your grant, repeat the process until all unlawful deductions cease.

Remember to put in a written claim for these, too, explaining that you have already requested the cellphone to be blocked.

We managed to get a full reimbursement of money unlawfully taken off my housekeeper’s daughter’s account.

You can proceed to lay a complaint if you wish.

I do hope you come right with this. Persevere.

Pieter Smit, Port Elizabeth