Cape Town - The Pay the Grants movement has expressed outrage at what it said was the ongoing abject failures of Sassa and the Department of Social Development regarding the R350 Social Relief of Distress grant.
The movement said this was continuing during Women’s month when millions of mothers were struggling to feed their children while the country faced a crisis of spiralling costs of living.
It criticised Sassa for declining caregivers for “Alternative Source of Income” due to receiving the Child Support Grant of R480.
Amandla.mobi movement members also recently marched to the Social Sector Summit demanding that the Department of Social Development urgently fix R350 grant problems as it said Sassa had stopped paying the grant to millions.
The movement also highlighted barriers to applying for the grant, non-payments, delays with appeals, and poor communication from Sassa.
Sassa said as of July 19, approximately 5 298 817 applications were approved, and 4 088 873 of those have received payment,
Pay The Grants co-ordinator Melanie McKernan said this was questionable, as countless people had still not received cash-in-hand due to the bank verification delays with the Cash Send system still not up and running and severe obstacles being encountered by claimants at Postbank and retail stores.
McKernan said beneficiary declines were higher than ever due to Alternative Source of Income and UIF. She said this was partly due to the current means test cap of R350.
She said appeals approved on reconsideration from the previous period were still not completed and paid out and that thousands were still sitting with “approved” statuses but no dates for collection.
McKernan said websites for applications or appeals frequently suffered technical challenges with a congested call centre. She said these challenges were continuing despite constant reporting to Sassa and the department with no improvements.
Amandla.mobi campaigner Tlou Seopa said it was unacceptable that those elected to lead spoke of the grant as if it was a favour to be appreciated, rather than an obligation and duty they bore.
“No matter how often leaders acknowledge that the R350 was inadequate and the Basic Income Grant important, talking alone will never be enough. We have worked with our members to use petitions, public comments and protests to ensure our leaders hear from those most impacted by their decisions,” she said.
Sassa said rejected applicants can lodge an appeal for reconsideration within 90 days of the outcome and be done for every month that the application has been declined.