Latest SASSA News Today: The South African Department of Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu has published a government gazette that proposes key changes to the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant criteria. This comes after lobby groups disapproved of the new criteria, that had negatively impacted millions of Social Relief of Distress (SRD) beneficiaries.
The proposal would see the income threshold to qualify for the grant moved from R350 to R624. This would mean that people would be allowed to earn up to R624 or have that amount of money in their bank account and still qualify for the grant. This amount is also the food poverty line in the country.
The proposed changes to the SRD grant criteria are aimed at allowing more people to benefit from it. Some of the proposed amendments include:
Removing the requirement that only those who have been receiving an unemployment benefit for 6 months or longer can apply for an SRD grant;
Changing the minimum age required for applicants from 16 to 15 years; and
Removing the condition that applicants must have been in receipt of a social assistance grant for a minimum period before applying for an SRD grant.
Sassa has reminded clients whose R350 grant applications were rejected that the agency no longer deals with R350 grant appeals. Appeals are now handled by the Independent Tribunal for Social Assistance Appeals (ITSAA).
