It gives me a great pleasure and privilege to address the media and social grant beneficiaries in the middle of an important social grant review process that SASSA is undertaking.
SASSA derive its mandate from the constitution of the republic of South Africa and SASSA Act, which is to administer, manage and payment of social grants to eligible beneficiaries.
The Agency has noted with concern the recent public outcry and confusion regarding social grant payments. We appreciate the importance of social grants to millions of South Africans and wish to take this opportunity to clarify the situation.
Section 14(5) of the Social Assistance Act requires beneficiaries to notify SASSA of any material change in their circumstances, including financial, marital as soon as reasonably possible. This obligation is also stated in the approval letter each beneficiary receives.
Related
China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges Gains Momentum with South African Launch
KFC backs potential of 200 young people with R5m in education feesAs a result of this legislation, in April 2025 the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) announced its plans for reviews during the 2025/26 financial year. These are targeted reviews to ascertain the eligibility of beneficiaries for whom we’ve obtained information that their circumstances have changed, and as a result, may no longer qualify for a social grant.
It is also important to clarify that SASSA conducts regular reviews as required by Regulation 30 of the Social Assistance Act. These reviews are essential to ensure that every person receiving a social grant remains eligible based on their current circumstances.
This is a legal obligation designed to safeguard the integrity of the social assistance programme and to ensure that public funds are directed to those who need them most. Beneficiaries are notified when their grants are due for review, and we encourage full cooperation to avoid any disruptions.
SASSA would like to categorically state that no social grant payments have been suspended or halted. All approved grants remain valid, and payments continue to be processed. Any beneficiary with an active and valid grant remains entitled to receive their payment.
This year we have only introduced and implemented a 4th payment date to our payment schedule, where beneficiaries targeted for a review are paid on the 4th day.
This would ensure that they receive their payment after the necessary review, without prejudicing the general payment cycle for others. We believe this strategy is better than previous rounds where beneficiaries who do not receive their notifications only find out that they’ve been placed on review when the get suspended; at which time it’s too late to have their payment for the month re-instated.
Those Beneficiaries who have not received a notification and are getting their payments on the normal pay dates (between the 2nd and 5th of the month), you do not have to contact the Agencies.
SASSA is aware of the complaints that beneficiaries are struggling with access to SASSA offices. During the month of June we’ve not seen many beneficiaries coming forward (except in some offices in KZN and the FS), however these numbers have increased significantly in the month of July. We are constantly monitoring the numbers, and we will adjust our plans accordingly to ensure that it remains within our capacity.
IMPORTANCE OF REVIEWS
The review of social grants helps identify beneficiaries who may no longer qualify due to changes in their financial, medical, or legal circumstances and serves as a confirmation of life or existence, ensuring that grants are not paid out to deceased individuals or those who have relocated without updating their records. More importantly, reviews allow SASSA to detect and prevent cases where individuals continue receiving grants despite being listed on payroll systems of other entities (public or private). This is being done to safeguard the integrity of the social assistance system to ensurethat only eligible beneficiaries receive support, preventing fraud and misuse of public funds. SASSA is undertaking the social grants review process for the better good of the government fiscus, thus ensuring that grants are paid to eligible beneficiaries and all the fraudulent elements are rooted out.
The review process also assists SASSA to have updated personal information of our beneficiaries as some have had their contact numbers and places of residence changed but they do not come back to SASSA to update their new personal information. This creates a challenge for us when we want to communicate with them, we do not find them because some of their information has changed.
WORKING WITH REGISTERED CREDIT BUREAUS
The agency has since strengthened its partnership with other institutions such as credit bureaus in the country and Data was sourced from this institution, which provides a reflection of employment status, e.g. a client may come to us and say they are unemployed or don’t have income (and sign an affidavit to that effect) and we approve the grant on their statement, but then they go to a financial institution to get a loan or procure goods or related services where they reveal that they are employed in order to show that they can pay back the loan. This information is recorded with the credit bureaus, which we now have access to.
REPONSIBILITY OF A BENEFICIARY
I must also emphasise that the Social Assistance Act and its regulations, places an obligation on the beneficiaries as a legal requirement to fully disclose all sources of income during their initial application and well as other personal details. Beneficiaries are also obliged to inform SASSA of any changes to their financial circumstances after their application has been approved. A beneficiary may have qualified and approved for a grant at the time of application, but their financial circumstances may have changed afterwards, and this is when they were supposed to inform SASSA of these changes.
CONSEQUENCES FOR NON-COMPLIANCE
Beneficiaries who fail to comply with this process risk having their grants suspended. Continued non-compliance may lead to the permanent lapsing of their grants. Beneficiaries are advised that SASSA is also empowered by the Act to recoup any money that would have been paid to the beneficiary incorrectly. This means that, should we find out that you have been receiving social grants that you were not eligible to receive, SASSA will institute debt recovery process where you will have to pay back the money.
COMMUNICATION AND CAPACITY AT LOCAL OFFICES
While SASSA communicated these changes through various media platforms and public announcements, we recognise that some beneficiaries may have missed this important communication. From previous years, we’ve noticed that many beneficiaries do not update their contact details with SASSA and consequently do not receive the notices for them to come in to conduct a review.
We have also sent out bulk SMS messages and registered letters to the addresses we have in our possession. To date, SASSA has sent over 140,000 SMS notifications to beneficiaries selected for review. However, the non-responsiveness is an indication that some beneficiaries may have changed their contact details but failed to inform SASSA.
We are working on strengthening our communication approach, including through more robust community-level engagement and increased visibility of information on official and public platforms. We will also increase the operating hours, employ additional capacity to address long queues that have been recently experienced during this important review process
We urge any beneficiary who has not received their payment or is uncertain about their payment status to contact SASSA through the email address or toll-free number mentioned below.
We are also working hard to automate the review process by introducing self-service options using online platforms to make it easier for our beneficiaries and reduce queues in our local offices.
FRAUDULENT ACTIVITIES
SASSA enforces a zero-tolerance policy towards fraud and corruption, both from beneficiaries and within its own ranks. Additionally, we are finalizing the implementation of Biometric identification infrastructure to enhance security and integrity in grant administration processes.
NATIONAL TREASURY CONDITIONS
While we are mandated by the Act to review social grants, we are also operating in a space where we have to adhere to the National Treasury’s budget allocation conditions. In February 2025, National Treasury issued SASSA with a preliminary allocation letter for the 2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period. The National Treasury allocation letter to SASSA contained compliance framework strict conditions, which the agency need to put in place since they became binding and form part of the approved budgetary allocations for the 2025/26 financial year.
These conditions direct SASSA to find mechanism to safe cost through its review process to ensure money is not paid to those undeserving beneficiaries to enhance fiscal accountability, improve operational efficiency, and ensure the integrity of the Social Assistance Programme. They cover critical areas such as income verification, biometric checks, inter-agency data cross-referencing, and quarterly reporting obligations. The conditions also reflect Treasury’s intent to strengthen oversight and promote transparency in the administration of social grants.
SASSA is fully committed to transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement of the social grant system. We take our responsibility seriously to serve the most vulnerable in our society and will work harder to ensure that no beneficiary is left confused or disadvantaged.
SASSA remains committed to protecting the right and dignity of each beneficiary by ensuring that no one who qualifies is unfairly penalized. Our efforts are directed at preserving the social assistance system for those who genuinely need it.
For more information, visit www.sassa.gov.za or call our toll-free number: 0800 60 10 11.
