SASSA cutting down number of identity fraud cases as it tries to root out corruption of SRD grant

The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) says it’s whittling down the number of identity fraud cases as it attempts to root out corruption of the R370 social relief of distress (SRD) grant.

Parliament heard on Wednesday that the National Treasury had imposed further directives on the agency to tighten its controls and reduce corruption as conditions to its R8 billion annual allocation.

SASSA said it had now conducted biometric checks on all SRD recipients.

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Treasury requires SASSA to submit quarterly reports on the checks it has carried out to ensure all grant recipients are eligible and legitimate.

259,000 beneficiaries were identified for checks in the first phase of the review, which caused mayhem at SASSA offices in September.

Grants administrator, Brenton van Vrede, said it had not been practical to do bank checks for alternative income upongrant registration, as the banks required time to produce the information.

"We've also implemented a check on our bank verification process to only allow fully FICA’d accounts to be verified. So, if an account is not yet fully FICA’d, we won’t pay money into that account."

In the first phase of the review, more than 34,000 grants were either suspended or had lapsed, while 8,500 beneficiaries had their grant value reduced after income checks.

SASSA said the second phase would largely focus on child support grants, with around 150,000 notifications sent out in September and October.