Question NW2261 to the Minister of Social Development
16 November 2020 - NW2261
van der Merwe, Ms LL to ask the Minister of Social Development
With regard to the special Covid-19 grant to the amount of R350, what (a) total number of persons have been paid to date, (b) is the cumulative amount paid out so far, (c) total number of persons have been rejected in total, (d) total number of appeals are being considered currently, (e)(i) total number of foreign nationals have benefited from the grant to date and (ii) countries are they from, (f) total number of officials who are in the employ of the State have been paid the grant and (g) qualified the specified officials to receive the grant?
Reply:
a) The total number of persons (cumulative) who have been paid across all the months to date is 19 753 894. This is made up as follows:
May 4 423 385
June 4 731 747
July 4 801 860
August 4 564 902
September 616 000
October 616 000
It should be noted that the numbers indicated above change on a daily basis, as payments are made daily. Payments for September and October are currently being done as a single amount of R700 to try and ensure that the backlog of payments is resolved before we move into the extension of the grant for the next 3 months.
b) The cumulative amount paid out so far is R6913862 900
c) The cumulative number of persons who have been rejected in total,across all months is16419 015, as follows:
May 2 180 725
June 2 454 765
July 2 770 269
August 2 927 238
September 3 043 009
October 3 043 009
d) 60 306appeals have been received to date and will be consideredfor the months that they have been declined. However, appeals continue to been received daily, so these numbers will change.
e) Foreign Nationals:
(i) The following applications have been received for foreign nationals but not paid yet as SASSA is still working with other organisations to validate the permit numbers and to verify the income:
750 Asylum Seekers and 1 117 Special Permit holders
(ii) countries from which they emanate:
Angolan Permit Holders 76
Lesotho Permit Holders 551
Zimbabwean Permit Holders 490
f) To date 241 officials who were found to be in the employ of the State were paid the COVID 19 SRD. The reason thereof is that SASSA could not find them on the databases at its disposal, when conducting verification. AGSA has however identified these individuals as Government employees and former government employees who are in receipt of other source of income such as the GEPF. The payment of these grants was immediately stopped when flagged by the AGSA as ineligible applicants for the May applications. SASSA will investigate and has determined a recovery process for grants that were paid to undeserving individuals.
g) The cases are still being investigated and further information will be provided once the investigations are completed.
National AssemblyWritten Reply: 2261 of 2020
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Approved by the Minister of Social Development
Date……………………….