Amendments to Social Assistance Act Regulations: Application, Eligibility for and Payment of Social Assistance

Call for comments opened 25 January 2021 Share this page:

Submissions are now closed (since 24 February 2021)

Social Development

The Minister of Social Development invites interested persons and organizations to make written submissions on the amendments to the regulations relating to the application for and payment of social assistance and the requirements or conditions in respect of eligibility of social assistance.

Comments must be submitted by no later than Wednesday, 24 February 2021 to [email protected]

 

Read: Social Assistance Amendment Act

Read: Amendments to Social Assistance Act Regulations: Lodging and Adjudication of Social Assistance Appeals

The amendments seek to facilitate assistance for qualifying persons regardless of whether a disaster has been declared under the 2002 Disaster Management Act. On the matter of additional payments to grant recipients, they focus on child-headed households and persons over 75 years of age.

Other amendments proposed deal with the conditions to be met when reapplying for a disability grant ‘previously declined on medical grounds’; the review of care dependency grants; the procedures to be followed when applying for various grants; the process of considering such applications and notifying applicants of the decisions reached; determining an applicant’s financial means; payment methods; direct deductions from social grants; communicating the decision to review a grant; lapsed grants; and the obligations of anyone accompanying a grant beneficiary to a pay point. Once in force, the revised regulations will replace certain provisions in the 2008 regulations, which have already been amended several times. They will also repeal a raft of regulations gazetted between 1998 and 2005. Source: Legalbrief