Over the past few days, the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has come under public scrutiny for its failure to payout the Child support grant to beneficiaries on time.
According to the Civil Society group PayTheGrants, R350 grant beneficiaries who are Sassa gold card holders have not received their grant payments.
Some received messages informing them that their grant had been paid into their accounts, but when they made withdrawals at the Post Bank, their funds were unavailable. When choosing to collect their grant at retail outlets, they would be told that their funds have already been withdrawn.
It would later be revealed that a disruption in Post Bank’s Cyber security systems caused the issue, according to #Paythegrants spokesperson, Elizabeth Raiters.
When they tried to withdraw, no money came out but when they went to the retailers they were told that the money withdrew already and to fill out forms so they could get the money back. Sassa said that there was some Cyber attack on the PostBank and that is the reason why they never got their money,
She adds that while some beneficiaries did receive their grant payout, some are yet to receive it. Postbank spokesperson, Dr Bongani Diako, confirmed that they indeed had an incident relating to a breach of their security system, issued an apology and reassured the affected grant recipient that payment will resume as scheduled.
“For the November payment run and the December, payment run did experience challenges with our system where intermittently the payments were affected and that was because Post Bank as an entity had been faced with external security issues that we have been working on. We've made significant progress in dealing with those challenges thus far” Diako stated
Concerning the SRD grant, Paythegrants Coordinator Nathan Taylor says that Sassa has gone out of its way to make its systems more complex and inaccessible to people who deserve it the most.
Taylor goes on to say that the Sassa failed to take into account the rise in the cost of living when the extension of the R350 was announced, which puts more financial strain on struggling beneficiaries.
The Civil Society organisation has continued its calls for the introduction of a Basic Income Grant to offset the inflation-induced cost of basic necessities to beneficiaries. The next cycle of grant payments will be made on 3 February 2023, starting with the Older persons grant.
