Collect your outstanding R350 Covid-19 grant payment before month-end or it will be forfeited, Sassa warns

The SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) has called on R350 social relief grant recipients from the previous cycle to collect their outstanding payments or they will be forfeited. 

On Wednesday, the agency said if payments are not collected by the end of the month, they will be sent back to the National Treasury to fund other “government priorities”.

“Uncollected special Covid-19 SRD grants from the previous cycle must be collected by Tuesday, August 31. Some approved applicants still need to collect their grants,” Sassa warned. 

“Any R350 grant not collected will be sent back to the National Treasury, to fund other government priorities. Enquiries can be made to confirm if there are any outstanding balances to be claimed.”

Last Friday, Sassa said since the reinstatement of the special grant, it has received over five-million applications. 

The grant was reinstated by President Cyril Ramaphosa during his address to the nation last month. It will be paid monthly until the end of March 2022.

According to Sassa, most applications are made by the 20-24 age group followed by the 25-29 age group. 

Payments for applicants eligible to receive the grant will be made by the end of August. 

Speaking on SAfm, Sassa spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi urged applicants for the latest round of the grant not to apply all at once. 

“The system is under stress, but our IT division was working on it to make sure that it can accommodate as many people as possible. We know that they’re keeping an eye on it,” said Letsatsi. 

“We also want to inform people that the application is open until the end of August. So people don’t necessarily have to panic — all of them want to make an application at once.”

He encouraged applicants to download the GovChat app and use it to apply for the grant. 

“The good thing about the process now is that we have opened an extra channel. So we have people who can make an application using other forms of channels like the GovChat app,” he said.