SASSA grant recipients battle with new verification process
Members of Parliament are raising concerns about SASSA’s new verification process.
Queues for social grants in Kuyasa, Cape Town. Beneficiaries of the Social Relief of Distress Grant are struggling with identity verification processes. Picture: Mary-Anne Gontsana/GroundUp
John Maytham (in for Lester Kiewit on CapeTalk) speaks with Barbara October of GroundUp News.
Listen below:
The National Treasury is introducing new conditions that SASSA must follow to get access to funds.
The conditions include submitting quarterly progress reports before the end of July and October.
These reports must include the number of grants reviewed, suspended or cancelled; savings; and any implementation challenges.
The agency is also required to strengthen its income verification, biometric systems, and other database cross-verifications.
However, MPs have raised concerns about how these new conditions will impact poor households.
Several grant recipients have reported struggling to access their grants because of SASSA’s reviews.
According to October, many recipients have found the biometric verification so difficult to navigate that they cannot get their grants.
RELATED: SASSA says beneficiaries can use gold cards indefinitely
“Some people might not even have access to the internet to do an online verification.”
– Barbara October, Deputy Editor - GroundUp
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