Cape Town - The SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) and Postbank have appealed to social grant recipients to be patient as payment challenges are being attended to.
Some beneficiaries were left frustrated after Sassa struggled to deliver grants on time because of apparent banking system glitches.
“The Postbank payments system has been unstable since the beginning of the payment cycle on 03 November 2022, resulting in some beneficiaries using the Sassa gold card not being able to access their money in various National Payment System (NPS) such as ATMs, retailers and post office branches.
“Currently over 96% of social grants have been withdrawn by recipients that have been able to withdraw their money through the National Payments System (ATMs, retailers) since the beginning of the payment cycle and we are still experiencing challenges with withdrawals at South African Post Office branches as well as pockets transactions failures on ATM and merchants withdrawals.
“These challenges are currently being attended to and recipients are urged to bear with us a little longer as we anticipate that they will be resolved in not so long time,” Sassa and Postbank said on Tuesday.
Ladismith resident Verity Engel said despite being told the issue was being attended to on Friday, they still had not received their grants on Tuesday.
“I have been trying since Friday to access my children’s grant with no luck. It is Tuesday and I still have not gotten paid along with many others. I myself haven’t been able to get my children’s grant. I was told at the post office that it shows on the system that the money is in, yet at the ATM and at the big retailers there is nothing. I have kept all my receipts showing a balance of nought, insufficient funds,” she said.
Engel is receiving the child grant for her two young children.
“This has affected me because I can’t pay the crèche for my children. I asked for any proof that I can give to the crèche, to say I am waiting on Sassa. I was told there is nothing they can do,” she said.
Cape Times