The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) will open its system for approved applicants to change their preferred method of payment for the special COVID-19 SRD grant.
The window period is scheduled for Monday 31 August to Sunday 06 September 2020, 24 hours a day.
According to SASSA spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi, during this period, beneficiaries can change from receiving their grants at the post office to receiving them through their personal bank accounts. They may also change from one bank to another if they prefer to. Approved beneficiaries of the grant can change their payment method by visiting SASSA during this period.
“This development is an effort to address challenges some beneficiaries have experienced in trying to access their special relief grant from the Post Offices. It is important for beneficiaries to understand that they should not go to the Post Office before they have received the SMS notification that says funds are available.
The SMS notification is used to limit the numbers of people reporting to a Post Office on a particular day and also to ensure that sufficient cash is available.”
“When choosing a bank account, ensure that the account is in your name (SASSA cannot pay money for one person into the account held by another) and that the bank account is not closed. The payment process is delayed if money is sent to a closed account, as SASSA has to wait for the funds to be returned before sending it to the Post Office for collection,” said SASSA.
The agency also announced that clients who opted to receive their special COVID-19 SRD grant through cash transfer will indeed get their August 2020 payment through this preferred method. “They must ensure that the cell phone numbers they provided to SASSA to receive payments, are registered in their own names and not names of other people like relatives or neighbours. It is mandatory that the cell phone number should have gone through the RICA process in order for payment to be done through it.”
Any citizen who does not update their information during this window period, or who provides incorrect banking details will have the payments for the remaining months sent through to the Post Office.
