More time for grant re-registration

 

Social grant beneficiaries who have not yet re-registered themselves have until the end of April to do so to keep their benefits, Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini said on Tuesday.

 

 

"In consultation with the CEO [of the SA Social Security Agency], I have taken a decision to give all the beneficiaries who have not been able to re-register an extended period to please do so before the end of April 2013," she said in a speech prepared for delivery at an update of the re-registration process.

 

Re-registration sites will be closed over the Easter weekend, so the process will resume on Tuesday, April 2.

 

Then from the beginning of May this year, letters of notification will be sent to non-compliant beneficiaries telling them of the department's intention to stop their social grants within 90 days of notification.

 

Last February the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) announced its new biometric payment system for social grants and called on all grant beneficiaries to re-register for the new system.

 

Part of the process was to flush out fraudulent claims and remove claims that are no longer required.

 

Dlamini said since then, Sassa had re-registered almost 19 million people, out of a target of 21 million.

 

"This is an important milestone in our quest to create a clean database of social security beneficiaries," she said.

 

This is made up of both cash and commercial bank beneficiaries in all provinces.

 

The most compliant for re-registering were elderly beneficiaries. She thanked all the individuals and organisations who helped with the re-registration.

 

The deadline was extended by a month because the department knew how important these grants were to recipients.

 

During the re-registration, it was found that 44,000 social grants had manually lapsed at the request of the beneficiaries. A further 66,000 grants lapsed due to non-collection.

 

According to the Sassa website, a person can re-register anywhere in the country. They need to take along their original 13-digit green barcoded identity document, original birth certificate of child/children, and a letter of award from Sassa if they are in possession of a 7777 ID no.

 

Queries can be made on 0800-60-01-60 or 012-400-2322 or 080060-10-11.

 

This includes inquiries on how to re-register a person who is too frail to travel.

 

- Sapa