Mom’s battle to retain grant for disabled teen

A BRAIN damaged and partially-blind teen has been disqualified from receiving a disability grant after her unemployed mother failed to produce an ID to the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa).

Laurenthia Williams, the 39-yearold mother from Eldorado Park, Joburg, said her 18-year-old daughter, Nicole, who started receiving a disability grant at an early age was now being “left to starve” by Sassa.

“They just took food out of her mouth leaving her with nothing but to die of hunger just because of some silly procedure,” said the mother.

Williams said in October, she received a letter from Sassa informing her to visit the nearest branch to re-apply for Nicole’s grant and should bring along her daughter who is brain damaged, cannot walk and talk, and also has epilepsy, with her ID, as she had turned 18 this year.

However, she said Nicole was still using a birth certificate and Sassa cut her off the disability grant.

The frustrated mother said she went to the Eldorado Park Sassa offices to get some clarification about the letter and they told her to bring the required documents and if she failed to do that, the disability grant was going to be cut off. “I then went to Home Affairs to apply for an ID.

“I asked that they to do a home visit to complete the application because the state my daughter is in, does not allow her to be in public places.

“However, after the process I received a text message, saying they have received my application and the ID card would be ready in three to four weeks.” She said her daughter didn’t get her grant last month, which was supposed to be received last week.

“They cut it off just before she turned 18 years old on Saturday.”

However, Sassa argued that the child was receiving a Care-Dependency Grant (CDG), which is awarded to sick or disabled children between the ages of 0-17 and the mother was the beneficiary.

Spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi said: “Once the child has reached 18 years, they are now considered an adult and the file needs to be under their name and must have a valid ID. The beneficiary can get a temporary ID from Home Affairs while still waiting for the ID. The qualifying criteria for a CDG and disability grant are not the same, which is why the grant was stopped.”

Letsatsi added that the beneficiary applying for disability grant are assessed by a Sassa doctor. “There is also a screening process where a beneficiary goes to the office to collect forms, they take along their ID and a referral letter from the doctor.”

Williams quit her job as a vehicle finance consultant seven years ago to look after her daughter.

“They told me that when I get the ID, I will need to take my daughter to the doctor they provide for check-ups to see if she still qualifies for the grant.” She said her daughter previously received a R1 600 monthly grant that was used to buy diapers and medication.