Reply:

 

The Special COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant was first introduced in May 2020 as part of the national response measures to mitigate the impact of the global pandemic and to control its further spread. The initial iteration of the grant ran from May 2020 to April 2021.

(a) The grant was re-introduced as from August 2021. As at 7 December 2021, the following number of requests for reconsideration have been received:

Month	Number of reconsiderations received
August 2021	984 702
September 2021	711 017
October 2021	570 111
November 2021	300 084

The period allowed for declined applicants to lodge a request for reconsideration is

30 days from receiving the outcome of the application. The above numbers, particularly for November 2021, may therefore change, as the window to request reconsideration is still open.

Applicants have to request reconsideration for each month that the application is declined, as this grant is administered on a month-to-month basis.

One of the critical compliance processes which have to be followed for each reconsideration request received, is that the application must be subjected to a means test through the banks. This is to ensure that the applicant is not in receipt of any financial support which exceeds R595 per month.

With the reactivation of the grant in August 2021, SASSA had to procure all services required for the support of this environment once again. This included services provided by the banks, with whom SASSA had a contract which ended on 31 July 2021. As a result, SASSA was advised to go on a closed tender to source services from the banks. This procurement process took time, and is still in process, which means that SASSA has not been able to attend to any of the reconsiderations received since August 2021. The process of contracting with banks is nearing finality and it is planned to be able to start processing the reconsiderations early in the new calendar year. Despite these delays, every reconsideration received will be attended to, and the grant will be paid, if approved on reconsideration

(a) Having learned from the initial iteration of the grant, where concerns were raised about the lack of communication of outcomes to applicants for the relief grant, SASSA has implemented a revised process of notification for each declined application. The applicant is sent an SMS notification to the cell phone number which he/she used to apply for the grant, advising him/her of the decline of the application, and the reason for this. He/she is then sent another SMS notification advising him/her to request reconsideration if the decision is disputed, and providing the link on which to lodge the request for reconsideration.

In addition to the above process which has significantly improved communication to the affected clients, SASSA has extensively communicated through various platforms including print media, radio and social media about the need to request reconsideration for each month that the application is declined. This general communication will continue throughout the life cycle of this grant.