South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) have announced the new amount for the SRD grant, also known as Social Relief of Distress Grant. During the National Assembly, Leaders in the government have announced the increase to other various grant payments.
New Amount of the SRD Grant
In presenting a statement on medium-term fiscal policy to parliament, Godongwana said:
“The SRD grant was introduced in May 2020 as a temporary measure to respond to the needs of the most vulnerable, who were affected by [COVID-19 induced] lockdown measures. It has been extended several times since then. Discussions on the future of the grant are ongoing and involve very difficult trade-offs and financing decisions,”.
But millions of individuals who used to benefit from the grant have not been receiving it since April, because of a massive drop in approvals by the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA).
The number of people approved for the grant declined from 10.9 million in March to just under 4.8 million in April according to SASSA.
Applications and approvals have improved since March, but are still well below his 10.5 million limit set by the Department of Social Development (DSD). The number of applications in August was just above 12 million, and the number of approvals was 7.4 million, he said, SASSA in response to a congressional inquiry.
The Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) expressed concern about this decline. In a presentation earlier this month, co-founder Neil Coleman said nearly a third of the SRD grant budget has gone unused since his March. According to Coleman, overspending is a real problem because “these grants target the poorest South Africans on the brink of poverty and hunger”.
The grant budget cap of 10.5 million was introduced by the DSD in March. In the past financial year the budget allocated by DSD for R350 grants was R44 billion and the government continued to distribute these benefits to eligible applicants. This is despite his DSD figures showing that 13.4 million people have no income and 18.3 million live below the R624 monthly poverty line.
After he sued DSD minister Lindiwe Zulu in a court where civil society group Black Sash, represented by the Center for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), challenged “unfair” and “arbitrary” regulations, the eligibility threshold was set. The value was raised to R624 monthly in his August. You are leaving millions of recipients futile. Hoodah Abrahams-Fayker, Black Sash’s director of national advocacy, told his media outlets that despite changes to eligibility criteria, “regulatory enforcement still excludes millions of people in need of help. There is evidence that there is a level, and it is intentional.”
“Millions of people still need social support,” said Abraham Faker.
SRD Grant Increase
The Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant which is popularly known as the R350 grant, is expected to be raised to R370 from April this year.
In the National Assembly, Enoch Godongwana said: “I am pleased to say that we have found consensus that in between, subject to the finalisation of the comprehensive social security programme, we’ll increase the R350 to R370 by the 1st of April this year. That is part of the progressive realization of the basic rights of our people,”. Budget Speech was delivered in February.
