Government Holding Talks to Substitute R350 Social Relief of Distress Grant Before It Expires Next Year
- The R350 grant will expire in March 2022 and the South African government is already in talks about its replacement
- The Sassa relief payment reportedly assisted many South Africans since its inception in April last year
- Although the country's Finance Minister is not keen on creating more grants, he is finding a way to help Mzansi
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A substitute for the R350 relief grant will soon be in the works. Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana on Wednesday, 8 September told Parliament that the reliable payment from SASSA may be superseded by next year.
Gondongwana, however, confirmed that the substitution was dependent on affordability. The service line's budget for the grant is around R205 billion for the years 2022 and 2023. The minister explained that the above is targeted at assisting the poor in an attempt to rid the country of the poverty gap.
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He went on to explain that Statistics South Africa should present more sound numbers on the damage to the economy as a result of the unrest in July, said a report by The South African. The R350 social relief grant was brought forward in April last year. People gathered in their numbers to receive their grant. The relief did expire twice.
Although the minister stated that he does not want to create any more social grants and that he would prefer to fund apprenticeships and training programmes with it. No solid information about the R350's substitute has been shared with the public, according to EWN.
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Sassa will take action against government employees who made R350 social grant applications
In other news about the social relief grant, Briefly News reported that government employees who have made applications towards receiving the R350 Social Relief of Distress grant have been warned that they will face consequences by the South African Social Security Agency.
Sassa says their system has detected that some of the applicants of the R350 grant were actually government employees, thanks to their verification system, according to a report by SowetanLIVE.
According to Sassa, this was discovered through the process of screening grant applicants against government databases to ensure that they were not governmental servants.
In a statement issued on the Sassa website, the agency says they found employees from their agency as well as provincial social development employees and other government employees are pulling from the SRD meant for people who are unemployed and in need of assistance.
Source: Briefly News
