Many ineligible applicants applying for R350 Covid-19 grant, Zulu reveals

Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu has revealed that there are a large number of applicants who still apply for the special Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant (SRD) of R350, despite being ineligible to do so, The Citizen reports.

Briefing the media on the her department’s social relief measures to mitigate impact of Covid-19 on Thursday, Zulu confirmed that R13.5-billion had been distributed to more than six million eligible beneficiaries to date regarding the R350 SRD grant, which has been extended to 31 January 2021.

Zulu said applications for December were already being processed, which would be paid out before the last week of the month.

“Of the 9.5 million applications processed in November, over 6.9 million applications were approved and already paid. There is still a relatively small number of applications approved, but not yet paid for the period between May and October.

“This is due to a number of issues, including information verification/banking details verification while in other cases South African Social Security Agency [Sassa] is struggling to locate the applicants as the contact numbers used during applications are no longer in use,” she said.

The minister also said they were experiencing challenges with the number of unclaimed benefits (40,584) – mainly from mobile payment options.

“The majority of applicants who opted for this payment channel have failed the cellphone verification process and this raised questions regarding compliance with RICA [The Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act] requirements.

“We have tried to reach out to applicants, with very little success. We therefore call on all applicants to collect their grants as this is intended to assist them to meet their basic needs,” she said.

She further said that more than three million applicants were found to have other sources of income. Over 6,712,482 applicants were found to be receiving social grants, 605,466 were registered for the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and 168,920 benefited from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

“Of major concern is that over eight thousand applicants were found to be using the personal particulars of deceased persons. This is not only illegal, but criminal.

“Thanks to our investment in fraud prevention and detection, we are now able to act speedily to deal with suspicious cases and fighting fraud by working with other government entities and law enforcement agencies.

“Let me hasten to add that we will be instituting recovery measures for persons who may have illegally received the grants meant for the most vulnerable,” she said.

The minister highlighted that the processing of temporary disability grants was a challenge during because of the required face-to-face assessments and closure of some health facilities.

She said approximately 210,000 temporary disability grants would lapse on 31 December after being extended due to the administrative burden.

“We urge all those affected by the lapsing of this extension to promptly contact local SASSA offices for an assessment.

“Applicants are reminded to have a referral letter from the medical practitioner before they report to Sassa offices. Sassa is already working on a plan to ensure that those who need to reapply for the temporary disability grant are afforded the opportunity to do so.”

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