The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) is responsible for the delivery and administration of all social security services to eligible children, older persons and people with disabilities in the country. This includes the R350 unemployment grant offered by the government during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The agency has been making headlines throughout the period of the lockdown with some people complaining about not receiving the unemployment grant. To help the government minimize glitches and the long ques, Sassa recently introduced an online grant-application portal which enables the public to apply for their grants and will be available via mobile phone and computer.
“This should be a relief to grant applicants as it will save them the inconvenience of standing in queues at Sassa offices to apply for their grants. The added advantage is that the convenience of online application eliminates the risk of being infected by Covid-19 … because there will be no need to gather at public places to apply,” the agency said in a statement.
The turnaround time is 10 days provided that the applicant supplies all the stipulated documents. Feedback to applicants will be sent via SMS to those with no e-mail addresses and an e-mail response will be sent to applicants choosing to be contacted by e-mail. Sassa said the system would be tested from the 25 of September 2020.
