Question NW494 to the Minister of Social Development

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12 May 2021 - NW494

Profile picture: Opperman, Ms G

Opperman, Ms G to ask the Minister of Social Development

(1)With reference to the presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on 3 February 2021 regarding the temporary disability grant, (a) what number of doctors has her department contracted to date to supplement capacity and (b) how will a six-minute assessment per client be conducted; (2) in view of the fact that assessment stood at 5% of 14385 Northern Cape clients, (a) what number of doctors have been deployed and (b) will the target be reached by 31 March when one doctor can only see 3520 clients on the 80 client per day ratio; (3) what number of care dependency grants have been concluded to date since the reassessments stood at 70% in January 2020; (4) what amount will be spent on overtime for each hour including weekends; (5) what number of (a) support offices have her department opened to support local offices and (b)(i) volunteers are currently deployed to manage queues and (ii) have they been found to be sufficient to handle congestion?

Reply:

1(a) The total number of doctors contracted nationally currently stands at 290. These doctors supplement the capacity provided by the Department of Health

(b) Every client who is seen by a contracted doctor comes with a referral form, which details the history of the condition, as well as the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis. This assists the assessing doctor to make a recommendation based on both the presentation by the client as well as the documents provided.

Where the doctors undertake file based assessments, they have access to the clinical file which contains all the information related to that client. Where the information on the file is inadequate, then a telephonic interview is conducted.

The above measures all assist in ensuring that informed recommendations are made.

2(a) With the removal of duplicates on the lists and re-instatements that occurred in January 2021, the baseline for the Region was reduced to 13 488. Out of this baseline of 13 488, by end March 2021 a total of 12 344 clients had been booked for assessments, 10 458 assessments (77%) had been conducted and 9 260 applications processed on the system.

The contracts of 28 medical doctors have been approved for the Northern Cape and all are currently conducting medical assessments throughout the Region.

(b) During this project, a total of 10 458 assessments translating to 77% of the baseline were conducted. Staff worked over-time (after-hours & week-ends) to ensure that this target was reached.

3. While the file based assessments have been conducted for the care dependency grants, there has been a slow response to the request for the care giver to return to complete the application process. Of the 11 243 which were lapsed at the end of December, only 5 865 have returned as disability grant recipients as at 31 March 2021.

4. It is not possible to indicate in advance what the amount is that will be spent on overtime for the staff, as the amount to be paid depends on the number of hours worked as well as the salary level of each particular staff member. There is not a standard amount per staff member.

Each region has to manage the overtime within the regulations, which stipulate that no staff member may earn more than 30% of his/her salary in overtime payments and no staff member may work more than 10 hours overtime per week; as well as within the available budget.

5.(a) No support offices have been opened to support the local offices, However, where possible, previously utilised service points are used to provide the services to limit the number of clients who have to report to a local office.

(b) A total of 1 013 volunteers are assisting with multiple services offered by SASSA, including assisting with queue management at local offices, post offices and other grant access points. These volunteers assist greatly in ensuring that social distancing is maintained while the clients are in the queues. However, there are certainly areas where there are insufficient volunteers.

National Assembly Written Reply: 494 of 2021

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Approved by the Minister of Social Development

Date……………………….

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