The Department of Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu said that more people now qualify for the R350 social relief of distress (SRD) grant after the means test threshold was increased to R624, which is the food poverty line set by Stats SA in September 2021.
This means anyone with a monthly income of more than R624 a month will not qualify for the grant. The reduction was made after the grant was moved to the Social Assistance Act when the national state of disaster was lifted.
According to department deputy
director-general Brenda Sibeko, all applicants will thoroughly checked:
The criteria stated that a
proxy means test consists of checks against databases that may indicate income
or alternative financial assistance and verification of insufficient means with
banks.
“If the results from bank
verification contradict results from data checks referred to in the
sub-regulation, the results from the bank verification must be used to make the
final determination.
If a person has more than one
bank account, the criteria for insufficient means are deemed to have been met
if all the bank accounts, assessed individually, are below the income
threshold.
Sibeko said approved
applicants do not need to reapply every month, but checks will be made monthly
to determine if they still qualify.
Zulu's department was allocated a R44bn budget that can only accommodate 10.5-million SRD beneficiaries until the end of March next year. Meanwhile the Social development minister also announced that the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) is working on a plan to help those receiving the R350 social relief distress grant (SRD) find work.
by Everngelista Muza
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