People still waiting for Covid-19 relief grants
Sassa announces that 1.2m applications being finalised
Frustrated South Africans have again expressed disappointment with the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) after still not having received their R350 Covid-19 relief grant payments for May.
The R350 grant is meant for unemployed citizens and qualifying foreign nationals during the lockdown. It was announced in April by President Cyril Ramaphosa and qualifying applicants were told that they would be paid by the end of the month.
However‚ not all payments were made. “Payments were made from May 15‚ meaning not all payments will go through today but certainly this month. If you have gone through the application process‚ please wait for a response from Sassa. It takes a bit of time but you will be contacted‚” Sassa said on May 26.
On Tuesday‚ Sassa announced that just over 116,000 applicants had been paid the grant so far.
Sassa CEO Busisiwe Memela said the agency received 13-million enquiries and applications as of Monday May 25.
Memela said just over six million of the applications received were valid‚ complete ones. Others were duplicates‚ incomplete‚ or had inconsistent data.
“About 1,236,492 applications are still being finalised through verification by the SA Revenue Service [Sars] to confirm if the applicants have an income.
“A total of 666,381 clients were approved and Sassa is awaiting their banking details‚ while more than 1,597,127 are disapproved as the applicants have some means of income‚” she said in a statement.