R350 grant exposes extent of South Africa’s unemployment crisis

Youth account for 60% of the Covid social relief of distress (SRD) grant applications submitted to the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa).

So far 4-million people have received R350 SRD grant payments out of nearly 5.3-million approved applications by July 19, Sassa said on Friday.

About 5% of applicants hold tertiary qualifications.

The grant was introduced to target citizens of working age who are not accommodated in the social assistance safety net.

Sassa said the high number of youth applying for aid correlates with the 63% unemployment rate in this sector of the population.

This “is a great cause for concern and the agency remains committed to playing its part in fighting unemployment”.

TimesLIVE