Sassa beneficiary fears he won’t be able to pay rent without grant
Cannon says he is grateful for the food parcels, but fears he will fall behind on his rent and might fail to catch up once the lockdown ends.
Springs resident Harold Cannon suffers from a disability and relies on Sassa grants to pay rent and keep himself afloat.
However, since the lockdown was put in place in March, Cannon has been unable to apply for a grant for April.
Sassa suspended all operations after the lockdown was announced, and the South African Government’s website says Sassa offices are closed during lockdown, which posed a challenge for beneficiaries whose grants expired in March and were therefore unable to re-apply at Sassa offices.
It stated on the website that: “The payment file for April payments was extracted before the lockdown was announced, meaning all temporary disability grants which were due at the end of March had already lapsed and were not generated for payment in April.
“In order to deal with this unintended consequence of the lockdown, Sassa is providing social relief of distress in the form of food parcels to beneficiaries whose disability grants expired in April as an interim measure to cushion the impact of the termination of the grant benefit.”
Also read: Springs calm on Sassa payday
Cannon says he is grateful for the food parcels, but fears he will fall behind on his rent and might fail to catch up once the lockdown ends.
Cannon says he only seeks answers.
“We are people, we need to live our lives and we can’t do that without Sassa.”
The Addie has called the Sassa hotline many times, but none of the calls went through.
Follow us on our social media platforms:
