The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) pays social grants to approximately 19 million financially vulnerable people monthly. This includes the distribution of several permanent grants.
These grants include the Older Persons pension grant, Disability grant, War Veterans grant, Care Dependency grant, Foster Child grant, Child Support grant, Child Support grant Top-Up and Grant-in-aid.
Many of these grant beneficiaries opted to collect their grants at a Post Office branch as it is the only accessible way to get their money. However, it has been announced that grant recipients will no longer have the option to withdraw cash from Post Offices.
In a joint statement, Sassa and the Postbank revealed plans to phase out all physical cash payment points (CPPs), including cash withdrawal services at Post Offices, starting in January this month and concluding by the end of March 2024. This would then affect Sassa grant beneficiaries.
Postbank's spokesperson, Bongani Diako did however make it clear that the Post Office will still continue to provide non-cash services such as card reinsurances, PIN resets, and statement printing.
Why is this happening?
The reason behind cash no longer being made available at Post Offices is due to the Post Office's financial struggles, having incurred a R6 billion loss over the past three years, with an R2.2 billion loss in the 2022/2023 financial year.
As part of its business rescue plan, the Post Office is set to close 420 loss-making branches and retrench 6,000 employees, with the potential for a R3.8 billion government bailout. The plan also includes phasing out revenue streams that have “failed to produce revenue”.
The revenue services they are referring to include Over Counter (‘OTC’) payment services, which include SASSA and cash pay points (‘CPP”) payments.
Where should Sassa grant beneficiaries get their Sassa money then?
Sassa grant beneficiaries will still be able to withdraw cash, just not at a Post Office. They can instead use their Sassa gold card at ATMs or retail stores such as Boxer, Pick N Pay, Spar, Shoprite, Usave and Checkers.
Sassa gold card social grant recipients using CPPs and Post Office branches must now use those cards at any place that accepts a bank card. This includes making purchases in any retailer that has a point of sale to swipe for goods or withdrawing funds from any retailer that provides a cash-back functionality.
But aren't Sassa gold cards expiring?
Sassa announced earlier this year that the validity of gold cards has been extended and would no longer expire on 31 December 2023. This means that Sassa grant beneficiaries with expiring cards can continue to use their Sassa cards for Sassa grant payments.
Sassa and Postbank will communicate the dates for replacing expired cards in due course.
They continued to say, "Clients who did not effect any change on their payment methods should still receive their grants in their Sassa gold cards".
