Social grants play a crucial role in ensuring that South Africans who have no other means of making an income can carry on without being heavily impacted by poverty. There are currently more than 18 million people who depend on permanent social grants.
These social grants are administered by the South African Social Security Agency. They include the child support grants, older persons grants, disability grants, war veterans grants,care dependency grants, grants in aid and foster child grants
Sassa also administers the Social Relief of Distress grant on a temporary basis, putting a lot of emphasis on ensuring that applicants meet the eligibility requirements for these grants before processing them.
How Sassa Determines Eligibility For Social Grant
The agency does this by conducting means tests to determine if an applicant’s alternative source of income or assets exceed their specified threshold. It is worth noting that being employed does mean an applicant is not eligible for a social grant.
However, the outcome of the Sassa means test must reflect that an applicant has very limited sources of income or assets based on their income eligibility criteria as listed below.
Here are the Sassa income means test requirements:
- Older persons, Disability, and War Veteran’s grant: Not earn more than R 92 520 a year (R7 710 a month) if you’re single. If you are married, your combined income shouldn’t be above R185 040 a year (R15 420 a month).
- Child support grant: Not earn more than R57 600 a year (R4 800 a month) if you’re single. If you are married, your combined income shouldn’t be above R115 200 a year (R9 600 a month).
- Care-dependency grant: Not earn more than R 238 800 a year (R19 900 a month) if you’re single. If you are married, your combined income shouldn’t be above R477 600 a year (R39 800 a month).
- Foster child grant: No Means Test Conducted.
- R350 SRD Grant: Individuals with a monthly income of more than R624 a month will not qualify for the grant.
How To Apply For A Sassa Grant
Provided that you qualify for the permanent social grant, you can submit your application at your nearest Sassa office branch. You can also nominate someone to apply on your behalf if you are unable to do so due to illness or old age.
Applicants also have the option to arrange a home visit by a Sassa official to assist with their grant application if they are unable to do so for the above-mentioned reasons. The Sassa official will assist with completing the application forms after which they will then provide a receipt as proof of the application.
It can take up to 3 months for Sassa to process social grant applications, but if the application is successful, the first payment will be made from the date on which the application was submitted.
If the application is unsuccessful Sassa will provide reasons in writing for the rejection. You can then lodge an application appeal within 90 days of being informed of this.
To find out more about Sassa grants, including the R350 grant, head to our Sassa section
