Department of Social Development Plans to Increase R350 SRD Grant and Change Regulations

• The Department o Social Development has expressed regret about the millions of people who have been rejected for the R350 SRD grant
• The department says it plans to make changes to regulations and they include increasing the grant money to R624
• South Africans have weighed on the situation and some people believe that the government should be more focused on creating jobs

JOHANNESBURG - The Department of Social Development recently stated that it was worried about the low number of people who have been approved for the R350 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant.

This comes as fewer than half of the more than 11 million applicants were approved at the end of June.

The department's minister Lindiwe Zulu has now published a draft of new regulations to amend some of the SRD grant provisions, according to EWN.

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Despite this proposal, the grant will remain at R350 until March 2023. In a Twitter thread, the Social Development department highlight three key amendments that have been approved in terms of who qualifies for the grant.

The first is to raise the maximum permissible income for applicants from R350 to R624, which is the food poverty line. The second amendment removes the obligation for applicants to specify whether they still need the grant every three months.

The department says applicant bank accounts are checked on a monthly basis as part of their cooperation with banks. The third is to remove the provision that makes the banks' verification process the primary criterion for establishing who is eligible for the grant.

Here are some of the amendments:

@Sihle_Langa23 said:

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"Instead of focusing on R350, DSD is supposed to be focusing on unemployed social workers 9000 social workers are depressed yet our Minister is busy with R350. #CyrilMustResign"

@promise_prod said:

"What about those who you guys declined their payments mistakenly, or maybe those whom you've said that they're getting alternative incomes, and they're no longer getting any, anymore?"

@PhakamaniKhum18 said:

"It's frustrating to the people between the age of 35 to 59 because they are too young for old age grant, too old to be employed yet don't qualify for R350 SRD grant and no other means of income. This is unfair discrimination against this age group of breadwinners."

@MariaMarutha said:

"The richer want to remain richer, while the poorest remain poor, why is these leaders playing with the poor citizens because of R 350."

South Africans left fuming after Sassa declines many R350 SRD grant applications due to budget constraints

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Briefly News previously reported that South Africans who applied for the R350 Social Relief of Distress grant (SRD) were left fuming on Thursday, 23 June after realising that their applications were declined by the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa).

Taking to social media, many people posted screenshots of the status of their applications and one of the reasons for their applications being declined was that Sassa found that they are already receiving an income.

One woman by the user name @Lee_Ntshole mentioned that she had been struggling to make ends meet the past two months and has no idea how she will survive now that she has been declined.

Source: Briefly News