Question NW3032 to the Minister of Social Development
04 October 2023 - NW3032
Abrahams, Ms ALA to ask the Minister of Social Development
(1)With regard to the SA Social Security Agency (SASSA) payment glitch which affected SASSA beneficiaries over the period 5 to 8 September 2023, what (a) total number of beneficiaries were adversely affected in each (i) province and (ii) grant category, (b) were the root causes of the payment glitch, (c) was the cause of the payment glitch, (d) are the relevant details of any fraudulent activity that was detected during the specified period, (e) are the consequences of the SA Postbank being in breach of their service-level agreement given its inability to reliably pay grants and (f) progress has been made, together with financial institutions, in processing the payment of grants to beneficiaries through their bank accounts which have proven to be far more reliable rather than the SASSA gold card; (2) whether her department intends to work with retail stores to develop a training programme for retail staff to equip them to assist SASSA beneficiaries; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details; (3) whether SASSA have access to a bulk SMS system in order to communicate with the beneficiaries when payment glitches arise; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
1.(a) The system glitch, which resulted in payment delays affected approximately six hundred thousand (3%) of social grants beneficiaries who access their monies through the Postbank.
(i) The system glitch affected Postbank clients randomly across all the provinces. At the time of responding to this question, Postbank was conducting a proper analysis of province-specific data.
(ii) The system glitch occurred predominantly on the first day of September payment cycle, which is the pay day for the payment of Old Age Grant.
(b) and (c) The glitch within the Postbank banking system was caused by the concentrated load capacity challenge resulting in intermittent timeouts, further complicated by a failure in the auto reversal process.
(d) Postbank reported there were various attempts to defraud the system. At the time of responding to this question, we did not receive any detailed information on this matter.
(e)Matters related to penalties, if any, are covered in the Service Level Agreement between SASSA and Postbank and will be discussed at the appropriate time.
(f) As I have mentioned on many occasions, SASSA clients have the right to choose any bank into which their money will be paid, including Postbank. All clients’ requests to change bank account details are initiated by the client and processed as quickly as possible. SASSA has put in place additional resources to accommodate the increased demand for alternative banks.
(2) neither SASSA nor the Department has any direct dealings with retailers. Retailers are places where clients purchase goods and/ or exchange funds. SASSA continues to conduct beneficiary education that they do not have to withdraw their money as they can use their cards to transact like any other ordinary bank card.
(3) Yes, SASSA uses this platform to communicate directly with beneficiaries on matters related to the administration of grants. However, with regard to the system glitch SASSA could not use this platform as it does not have access to beneficiary bank accounts.