Apply for a disability grant online

Sassa recently launched an online disability grant booking system.

“This new initiative adds a level of meaning to our services for the masses, especially to some of our country’s most vulnerable, people with disabilities,” said TBJ Memela, CEO of Sassa.

“This new system empowers prospective Sassa temporary disability grant recipients to book medical assessments without having to physically visit their local Sassa offices, which for a disabled person is hugely challenging, from the long waits in queues to the expense.

“The world we live in is digitally enabled, from transport to banking and even ordering food at your local fast food outlet. Why should we not use digital technology to improve the lives of people with disabilities as a critical response to the overflow of temporary grant applicants at Sassa branches?”

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Sassa’s strategy for 2020 to 2025 will be to consolidate social security coverage and contribute to an inclusive and responsive social protection system.

“Our first year of the strategy saw us vexed by a global crisis that forced governments around the world to adjust and adapt their systems and processes to facilitate citizens’ well-being,” she said.

“It was Sir Winston Churchill who said, ‘Never let a good crisis go to waste’, and so finding ourselves during a global crisis made us look to technology to deal with the humanity issues playing out around us.”

Memela made the following statement on a previously mentioned strategy document: “The work of Sassa in the next five years will be streamlined towards realising the four outcomes, as identified and detailed in this plan,” she said.

These outcomes are:

• Reduced poverty levels

• Economic transformation – empowered individuals and sustainable communities

• Improved customer experience

• Improved organisational efficiencies

“Like many executives across the world, little did I know that mere weeks later I would not have five years to roll out the majority of projects and plans in the strategy. I would have days to change the status quo and my team and I would have to find solutions that were not planned for 2020.

“I remember President Rampahosa addressing the nation, saying we would be joining the rest of the world in a hard lockdown that week and it was two weeks to month-end.

“My first thought was, how do we ensure the country’s most vulnerable still received their grant? A hard lockdown meant ‘contactless’ was the objective.”

In this same period, Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN women’s executive director, made a global call to leaders across the world to build back, better.

“These three words made me look upon my crisis as an opportunity to not just fix the issues but to rather re-engineer them towards the words of Madiba,” she said.

And so they got to work, looking to technology as an enabler.

“There were many hiccups along the way in the whole system, not by intention but because re-engineering a system is not about technology, it’s about people and what the people were being faced with,” she said.

“This system is part of that Sassa strategy to improve our services, efficiencies and empower individuals because it significantly reduces the amount of time and costs for both Sassa and applicants.”

There were 200 000 temporary disability grants that expired at the end of December.

These were the grants with a medical assessment expiry period between February and December 2020, which were paid as part of the special directives in response to the pandemic.

“You can imagine that this saw Sassa branches completely overwhelmed, with desperate clients attempting to re-apply for their temporary disability grants while being fearful of getting Covid-19 at the same time,” she said.

“It was this dire situation that led us to look at innovative ways of providing services to our people.”

Being able to make a booking for a medical assessment is only one aspect, the booking is linked to the available doctor’s schedule at the selected closest facility chosen by the client, thereby increasing efficiency and service once again.

“Not only that, but they’re able to download the medical referral form and Sassa affidavits for the medical assessment and application processing online, receiving an SMS confirmation of their final medical assessment booking date and time, including which facility it will take place,” she said.

“Furthermore, they can enquire about booking and screening outcomes or which documents to bring for the processing of the application, and they can even cancel the appointment made and re-book for an alternate date.”

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The development of the system was a joint effort with GovChat, and while it is a source of pride for both organisations in being able to address critical challenges of the people in their care, for Memela, it is only the beginning as they are looking at digitising other categories of grants.

“We are not anywhere close to the dream of Sassa as an integrated social security system, but with technology, we have unlocked the door to possibility,” she concluded.

Sassa also has an e-form online application platform where the applicant may register and apply for their social grants.

Visit Sassa’s website for more information.