“We came to the Post Office and they said there was no money” 11 January 2023 | By Marecia Damons On Friday, Postbank acknowledged that a glitch had prevented many social grant recipients from accessing their January 2023 payments. Postbank said the issue had been resolved. But GroundUp visited a Cape Town payment branch on Tuesday and found several beneficiaries had still not...

The short answer You can phone their hotline but you will probably have better luck if you get help from a non-government organisation. The whole question Dear Athalie I have been trying to get a birth certificate for my 5-year-old son since 2019 but Home Affairs still hasn't granted me an interview. Every time I go to the office to ask if there...

The short answer Domestic workers are eligible for UIF and state pension. The whole question Dear Athalie Our domestic worker has resigned after nine-and-a-half-years' full-time work. She is 65 and has arthritis and diabetes. We haven't been contributing to her UIF because we thought she would get a state pension and couldn't get both. What do we do? Should we backpay her UIF and...

Payments delayed by means testing processes By Marecia Damons Payments for the new cycle of the Covid R350-a-month grant will be made from mid-June, according to deputy director-general of the Department of Social Development Brenda Sibeko. The Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant, introduced in May 2020, was due to come to an end in March 2022 but was extended in February this year to...

The agency says it’s waiting for Department of Social Development to finalise amended regulations By Marecia Damons SASSA will not be processing new R350 Covid Grant applications until the relevant regulations have been amended. The grant was introduced and distributed under the Disaster Management Act to provide relief to poor people and those left vulnerable due to the Covid pandemic. It...

Since lockdown asylum seekers and refugees have been denied crucial services By Tariro Washinyira Refugees and asylum seekers are facing a myriad of problems because Home Affairs has not provided crucial in-person services for two years. Despite a blanket extension of permits various government departments and private sector facilities are not accepting valid documents, not even some Home Affairs officers. There...

The short answer Yes, but only if you still pass the means test. The whole question Dear Athalie I receive a disability grant from SASSA. What will happen to my grant if I inherit money? The long answer Because the disability grant, like all the other SASSA grants except for the foster care grant and the grant-in-aid, is means-tested, your income and assets have to...

SASSA says only 8 million of the 13 million people who applied for the R350 grant were approved By Masego Mafata About 20 activists picketed outside the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) offices in Pretoria on Thursday, demanding fixes to flaws that they have identified in the R350 Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant application system. Many of the activists, affiliated...

Freedom Under Law has accused CPS of under-reporting its profits by R800 million By Tania Broughton The Constitutional Court has ordered Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) to furnish chartered accountants Rain with all the documents required to conduct a proper audit of the firm’s illegal contract for the payment of social grants on behalf of government. The court granted the order at the behest of Freedom...

SASSA has proposed a ten-point plan to deal with backlogs By Mary-Anne Gontsana and GroundUp Staff The Black Sash has called on SASSA to extend temporary disability grants to the end of March. More than 200,000 grants, which had been extended for six months, lapsed on 31 December and beneficiaries have been queueing outside SASSA offices to renew them. SASSA says it cannot...