SASSA clarifies expiry of beneficiaries’ cards
Following an agreement with all these parties South African Social Security Agency can confirm that the official card issued to social grant beneficiaries will operate without any problem beyond the expiry date of December 31 2017 printed on it.
The issues of the SASSA expiry card has brought a lot of uncertainty among social grant beneficiaries who are now living in fear of what will happen when the card expires at the end of December .
The agency would like to assure beneficiaries of social grants that the matter has been dealt with and resolved by all parties concerned, namely Cash Paymaster Services(CPS), Payments Association of South Africa (PASA) and MasterCard.
This therefore means that the card will be accepted at all retailers irrespective of the expiry date printed on it. The reason for this is that the technology and the acceptance of the card into the National Payment System requires no enhancement as this has already been addressed. SASSA further wishes to reiterate that the card bearing the colours of the South African flag remains the only official card and cannot be changed for any other card.
Chief Executive Officer of SASSA, Pearl Bengu said, “Beneficiaries of social grants do not have to panic anymore as this issue has finally been resolved. It has been agreed in our negotiations that PASA will issue a notice to all retailers informing them that they should find it easy to accept the SASSA card as it will still function properly irrespective of the expiry date printed on it.”
Bengu also assured beneficiaries that payment of their social grants will go ahead as usual. She concluded by saying that the Agency is aware that the expiry date on the card coincides with the period when most parents will be preparing to take their children back to school and that SASSA would never allow any families or children to be impacted negatively by this issue.
Beneficiaries are also warned to be careful of any individuals posing as SASSA employees offering to exchange their SASSA cards for any other card because of the expiry date.
