Sassa encourages honesty from grant beneficiaries during income reviews
Multiple pensioners did not receive their July grants after the agency discovered what it called 'additional income' in their bank accounts.
Brenton van Vrede, Sassa's executive manager for grants administration, told journalists on Monday that for normal social grants such as the older person's grant, disability grant and child support grant the focus is not just on how much money appears in a bank account.
'We are encouraging people to disclose. It's not about how much is in the account. It's about understanding the source of that income so we can test whether the person qualifies for the full grant amount, a partial amount or doesn't qualify.
'Maintenance is considered income in terms of the social assistance regulations, but each case is individually assessed.'
He emphasised that honesty in the application, including providing three months of bank statements and explaining each source of income, is essential to ensure people are assessed fairly.
Van Vrede noted most grant recipients will probably still qualify, even if they receive small amounts of financial support from family members.
'The qualifying income threshold for the older person's grant is quite high, more than R8,900 per month. So, if someone is receiving R2,000 from their children, it's unlikely to result in disqualification unless they have additional income, such as from a pension fund or rental income,' he said.
Sassa CEO Themba Matlou addressed confusion about the social relief of distress (SRD) grant, maintenance income and the process by which reviews are triggered. He said no beneficiaries have been suspended but confirmed the agency is reviewing about 210,000 beneficiaries out of 19-million, a small fraction, after red flags were raised about possible ineligibility due to employment or other income sources.
'We have not experienced a situation where someone has been verified and not been paid. If the person no longer qualifies in terms of the legislation, we will suspend the grant but there hasn't [yet] been any suspension.'
Matlou noted that means testing varies depending on the type of grant. For child support grants, it is the primary caregiver's income that is assessed, not the child's. In contrast, the SRD (Covid-19) grant involves more stringent, automated income checks via bank verification to determine eligibility.
'With SRD, we verify through the banks whether there's consistent money that comes through. But for normal grants, the means test usually applies to the primary caregiver only.'
To reduce panic and long queues at Sassa offices, Matlou said the agency is developing a self-review online platform so grant recipients can review their own information without visiting offices. Hotspot offices with high volumes are being staffed with additional personnel to handle reviews more efficiently.
'We've only sent out the first rounds of notifications in June. We're still within the review time frame. Once we pass that, and if clients haven't come forward, then suspension will occur not necessarily because they don't qualify but because they failed to do the review.'
The agency will publish data on the number of beneficiaries reviewed, the outcomes of those reviews and the number of grants continued or cancelled by the end of July.
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