sassa

R350 Grant Must Be Increased Now

Published

3 weeks ago

November 11, 2023

A grant of R350 is being sought by the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI).The civil organization asked the Department of Social Development (DSD) to extend the Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant beyond 2024 on Tuesday, 14 March.

R350 Grant Must Be Increased Now

According to the Social Assistance Act, the department is amending the grant regulations, but the amendments are limited to changing the expiration date from March 2023 to March 2024.

It was concerned that the extension was limited to twelve months.According to the statement, “We welcome its extension, but are deeply concerned about its twelve-month duration.”.

In addition, there is no allocation to fund the grant after March 2024 in the tabled 2023/24 National Budget, signalling a possible intention to withdraw the grant after a year.

According to SERI, the government handled this “critically important grant” poorly and failed to address systemic issues that civil society repeatedly raised.Poor people’s lives cannot be improved with R350 a month, according to the organization.