A call has been made for those eligible for the R350 special Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant to reapply as the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) kicks off the new cycle.
The application process opened last week Friday, with the first payments expected to be made in the last week of August.
‘The previous SRD grant expired on 30 April and this means that all those who had previously applied must reapply to enable us to assess their eligibility as we did every month during the previous period. All applications will be treated as new applications each month.
‘However, each applicant need only apply once – thereafter the application will be considered monthly,’ said Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu.
Zulu presented an update last week on the re-introduction of the grant.
A total of R26.7-billion, which is inclusive of administrative costs borne by Sassa, has been allocated for eight months with effect from August, until March 2022.
The minister said they have strengthened security controls to address challenges in the previous cycle.
‘One of the lessons learned is to ensure we have all the relevant databases required to verify all applications.
‘From a fraud and corruption aspect, Sassa is recovering monies from those who benefitted wrongly, and has referred some matters to law enforcement agencies for further actioning and possible arrests,’ said Zulu.
Who is eligible to apply:
- A South African citizen, permanent resident or refugee registered on the Home Affairs database, and persons who are holders of special permits under the Special Angolan Dispensation, the Lesotho Exemption Permit dispensation and the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit Dispensation, as well as asylum seekers whose Section 22 permits or visas are valid or were valid on 15 March 2020
- People currently residing within the borders of the Republic of South Africa
- People above the age of 18 and below the age of 60
- The unemployed
- Those not receiving any social grant in respect of himself or herself
- Those not receiving an unemployment insurance benefit and do not qualify to receive an unemployment insurance benefit
- People not receiving a stipend from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme and other financial aid
- Those not receiving any other government Covid-19 response support
- Those not resident in a government-funded or subsidised institution.
How to apply
All applications will be done electronically using the following channels:
• Firstly, through the website at https://srd.sassa.gov.za
• Through the WhatsApp line on 082 0468553
• The USSD line *134*7737#