Brenton Van Vrede, the Executive Manager of the Grants Administration, explained how the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) reviews its beneficiaries to check if they still qualify for their grants. Depending on the grant, it may happen multiple times in the year.
According to Van Vrede, Sassa reviews beneficiaries when they suspect circumstances may have changed. This may be receiving an extra income which has not been declared or the loss of an income.
The review process is a three-month process. Beneficiaries are sent a letter to inform them about the review and provide them with instructions to follow.
Beneficiaries are instructed to visit the post office within a month after receiving the letter. They will need to take their latest payslip which will be checked to see if they still qualify for the grant.
If they do not attend the review, their grant will be suspended until they do so. Sassa encourages grant recipients to make the effort to go in for their review so that their grant is not suspended.
Those who do not qualify for the grant will, unfortunately, have the grant cancelled. In some cases, the grant will be adjusted, which means the amount they usually receive will be reduced.
Grant recipients are encouraged to keep the same contact details so that Sassa is able to contact them for their review. Beneficiaries are informed that their grant won’t just be cancelled, they will be called in for a review first.
The Special Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant requires beneficiaries to be reviewed every month. Whereas the other grants only get reviewed roughly once a year.
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