R350 SRD grant: More people set to qualify following a new proposal

More people are set to qualify for the R350 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant following a proposal on the income threshold that saw many applications being rejected. 

In April, civil society organisations and unions raised their concerns after the income threshold was reduced from R595 to R350 in order to qualify for the SRD grant.  It was reported that over 10 million poor South Africans would not benefit because of the new changes.

MORE PEOPLE TO QUALIFY FOR R350 SRD GRANT

Under the National State of Disaster, the income threshold for one to be eligible for the R350 SRD grant was R595 and was then reduced to R350 under the new regulations. 

On Thursday, 7 July, Social Development Minister, Lindiwe Zulu formally proposed that the income threshold for the R350 SRD grant applicants be increased to R624. The proposal is up for comment until 29 July 2022. 

R624 is the national food poverty line that was set by Statistics South Africa in September 2021. 

CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS HEADING TO COURT

In June, civil society organisations announced that they will be heading to court to try and overturn the tight criteria and means test which they say deprives millions of people in need of government assistance and regresses developments of the right to social assistance for hundreds of thousands who qualified for this assistance previously. 

In a joint statement, the organisations which include The Blacksash Trust and #PayTheGrants amongst others said on the immediate crisis with non-payment of the R350 SRD grant: Not a single beneficiary has received the April and May payments for this grant cycle in mid-June as promised.  Instead, only back-payments from August to November 2021 have been made due to successful appeals. 

Apart from that, SASSA also recently revealed that out of the over 10 million applications it received, approximately 5 million applications were rejected for various reasons.

ALSO READ: R350 grant: Applicants urged to update details for April, May backlog funds