IN a bid to improve security measures and improve compliance with social assistance regulations regarding the provision of social grants, the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has suspended 70 000 grants due to failure to conduct reviews.

This emerged during a media briefing held in Cape Town on February 5 as Sassa officials were giving an update on social grants reviews and other initiatives undertaken to improve social grants systems.

Also read: Sassa continues to review grants of targeted beneficiaries

Spokesperson for Sassa Pasek Lestatsi said they have reviewed 240 000 grants of which 70 000 were suspended.

“The agency has since strengthened its partnership with other institutions such as credit bureaus in the country and data was sourced from this institution, which provides a reflection of employment status, such as a client may come to us and say they are unemployed or don’t have income (and sign an affidavit to that effect) and we approve the grant on their statement, but then they go to a financial institution to get a loan or procure goods or related services where they reveal that they are employed in order to show that they can pay back the loan. This information is recorded with the credit bureaus, which we now have access to,” said Letsatsi.

Sassa is working with Sars to identify fraudulent application within its system

Through data matching and verification with the South African Revenue Service (SARS), beneficiaries identified as requiring further eligibility assessment were prioritised for review and requested to present themselves for verification.

“We have selected a portion of 495 296 clients identified through income-verification testing exercise who appear not eligible to receive the grants, hence verification has commenced on these clients. From this figure, we have already sent notifications to most of the clients to come forward for verification,” said Letsatsi.

He said Sassa is also working in partnership with other entities such as the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) to identify beneficiaries with potential alternative sources of income.

“Our efforts with other government departments are also giving significant progress since we identified 291 581 from different government payroll systems who seem not to be eligible to receive the social grants. We are engaging for them to come for review process. Beneficiaries identified through this process are required to present themselves for review and disclosure. Failure to comply may result in grant suspension,” he said.

Consequences for non-compliance

Beneficiaries who fail to comply with review or life certification requirements may have their grants suspended, with continued non-compliance potentially resulting in the lapsing of grants.

Beneficiaries are reminded of their obligation to inform Sassa of any changes to their details including:

• Personal circumstances
• Contact information
• Marital status
• Income to avoid their grants being suspended or lapsed.

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