SASSA Grant Payment Dates For 2023

Here Are The Sassa Grant Payment Dates For 2023

January marks the first month of the current year, which means 2024 is only a few monts away, so it would be wise to keep up with Sassa’s 2023 payment schedule as a social grant recipient.

Although the 2022 festive season may be well underway, Sassa grant recipients still need to keep up to date with the agency’s payment schedule in order to receive their payment on time, particularly with 2023 around the corner. With this in mind here are the social grant payment dates for the first few months of 2023.

January 2023

• Older Person Grant: 03/01/2023    
• Disability Grant: 04/01/2023    
• Children’s Grant: 05/01/2023

February 2023    

• Older Person Grant: 02/02/2023    
• Disability Grant: 03/02/2023    
• Children’s Grant: 06/02/2023

March 2023    

• Older Person Grant: 02/03/2023    
• Disability Grant: 03/03/2023    
• Children’s Grant: 06/03/2023

In addition to this, only qualifying beneficiaries will receive the social grant payouts every month. Some social grants increased in October this year following an announcement by Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana during his budget speech in February earlier this year.

The Disability Grant increased from R1 890 to R1 990 in October and the War Veterans Grant also increased from R2 000 to increase to R2 010. The Old Age Grant increased to R1 980 (in April) and further increased to R1 990 (in October). 

For people older than 75 years, the grant increased by 5.2% from R2 000 in April and then to R2 010 (in October). These amounts have already been confirmed by Sassa.

SASSA grant: R350 extended until March 2024

R350-a-month grant extended until March 2024

The R350 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) Grant is being extended for an additional year until March 2024, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced on Wednesday.

Presenting his medium term budget policy statement to Parliament, Godongwana said: “The SRD grant was introduced in May 2020 as a temporary measure to respond to the needs of the most vulnerable who were affected by lockdown measures. It has been extended several times since then. Discussions on the future of the grant are on-going and involve very difficult trade-offs and financing decisions.”

But millions of people who used to get the grant have not been receiving it since April, because of a massive drop in approvals by the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA).

SASSA says the number of people approved for the grant plummeted from 10.9 million in March to just under 4.8 million in April. : SASSA SRD R350 Status Check

The number of applications also declined suddenly during this period, from almost 15.8 million applications in March to 8.1 million in April.

Applications and approvals have both risen since March but have still not reached the limit of 10.5 million set by the Department of Social Development (DSD). In August, the number of applications was just over 12 million and the number of approvals 7.4 million, SASSA said in response to a parliamentary question.

Concerns surrounding this decline were raised by the Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ). During a presentation earlier this month co-founder Neil Coleman said that since March, nearly a third of the budget for the SRD grant payments was not spent.

Coleman said that the underspending was a real problem because “these grants are aimed at the poorest South Africans, on the brink of destitution and hunger”.

He said the reason for the sudden decline in approvals was the means test threshold of R350 which excluded a lot of possible beneficiaries, the stringent bank verification requirements, and the fact that applications can only be made through an online system.

The budget cap of 10.5 million approvals was introduced by the DSD in March. The DSD’s budget for 2022/23 for the R350 grant was R44-billion, providing for 10.5 million grant payments per month. This is despite the DSD’s own figures showing that 13.4 million people have no income and 18.3 million people live below the food poverty line of R624 per month. : R350 SASSA SRD DECLINE…WHY?

More about Social Grants :

>>SASSA Child Support Grant R 240 Top-Up
>>How To Access Your R350 Grant Anywhere
>>R350 SASSA SRD DECLINE…WHY?
>>How To Track Your R350 Grant Appeal
>>Social Relief of Distress (SRD) Grants Application 2022 for South Africans