Durban — The Department of Social Development has provided five possible reasons why some R350 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant recipients have stll not received their monies as of February 1, 2023.
Minister of Social Development Lindiwe Zulu gave the reasons after the EFF’s Paulnita Marais, in a parliamentary question asked Zulu why some people had not received their SRD grants.
Marais also asked Zulu by when the problem would be resolved.
“Sassa (South African Social Security Agency) is up to date with all assessments and payments for the Covid-19 SRD. There are, however, a number of clients that could not be paid due to challenges with their payment method,” Zulu said.
She said these included:
1. No payment method details were added to the application or provided by the client. The client is required to upload payment details.
2. The payment method failed verification which could be due to incorrect account details or that the account did not belong directly to the client. This requires the client to either correct their details or supply a new payment method.
3. The largest area of failed verifications related to those who selected payments to their mobile number.
“There is currently a challenge with the cash send verification process as the contract for this has expired and Sassa is in the process of following a formal procurement process. However, since the vast majority of these assessments fail due to the cell phone numbers provided not being RICA’d, clients are advised to use a different payment channel such as providing their banking details. Those who have been previously approved and paid through this specific mobile payment channel will continue to be paid,” Zulu said.
4. A small number of clients are on “referred status”. These are approved applications that cannot be paid due to a challenge with identity verification i.e. ID number has been confirmed to have been used in fraudulent matters such as identity theft. The clients have been advised and a process has been put in place for clients to confirm their identity through a biometric verification process.
5. There are about half a million clients who have not yet complied with FICA (Financial Intelligence Centre Act) requirements on their Postbank accounts. Clients are required to finalise this FICA process or to upload alternative banking details, to enable payments.
“As these challenges (for the most part) require action on the part of the client, it is not possible to provide a date on when all clients will be paid. Once the client’s payment method is corrected by the client, and verified, Sassa will be able to effect payment to the client,” Zulu said.
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