Early Childhood Development Centres (ECD) that
were not approved for the ECD stimulus relief fund, but have since received
text messages from the department, have until Tuesday to correct their data
information, in order to be approved for the roll-over funding.
Department of Social Development Minister Lindiwe
Zulu said those who did not previously qualify for funding because they gave
incorrect data information could reapply for the stimulus relief, subject to
verification processes.
“We are aware that we did not make payment to
all stimulus applicants. The money has not all been spent and we have applied
to the National Treasury that the money rolls over, and those who have not been
paid will be paid,” she said.
Zulu urged ECD applicants who have received
text messages to go back to the application website and reapply. No new
applicants would be approved, only those who received text messages from the
department.
The Western Cape’s Social Development MEC,
Sharna Fernandez, has encouraged those to verify their information if they
haven’t done so already.
‘’The ECD sector has been particularly hard hit
during the COVID-19 pandemic due to prolonged closures. Consequently, the Early
Childhood Development Employment Stimulus Relief Fund is part of sustaining
employment opportunities in the sector in light of the high unemployment rate
and job losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.’’
As part of the ongoing verification process
that is completed by the National Department of Social Development, field
workers have been deployed in all nine provinces, to provide ECD Stimulus
Employment Relief Fund applicants with onsite support to attend to outstanding
matters on their application.
During the site verification visit, services
are requested to take note of the following to ensure that they do not share
personal information with unauthorised persons.
·
Fieldworkers will be wearing a
name tag with the fieldworker’s full name and fieldworker code.
·
Fieldworkers can present a
signed letter from the DSD stating the purpose of the visit.
·
Fieldworkers can present the
SurveyCTO app on their phones used for capturing the site verification data.
It is important to note that ECD services will
NOT be allowed to start new applications or add new staff members to their
current applications.
WHO TO
CONTACT:
All
applicants that have not received payment are requested to check their
application status on www.ecd.gov.za/ecd/application/start. Once services have
logged on using their application ID or reference, they will be able to view
their application status and address any verification failures indicated.
Should services not be able to correct the indicated error, services should
email their query to ecdstimulus@dgmt.co.za before 31 August 2021.
• Fieldwork
enquires (related to site visits): Milton Yose – milton@datainnovators.com //
011 568 3333
• Remote
support: Masego Tabane- masego@datainnovators.com // 011 568 3333
• Programme
Manager: Olwethu Sizani- Olwethu@datainnovators.com
The National Department of Social Development
further notes that it is unable to process any payments if applications have
bank and staff verification inaccuracies as a result of wrong information
submitted by applicants. Hence, applicants need to verify their details and do
the necessary corrections to avoid payment delays.