Question NW2136 to the Minister of Social Development
14 November 2016 - NW2136
Masango, Ms B to ask the Minister of Social Development
(1)Whether the cards used by the current social grant recipients to receive their social grants each month will expire when the SA Social Security Agency’s (SASSA) contract with Net1 comes to an end on 31 March 2017; if not, why not; if so, what plans have been put in place to ensure that the specified recipients can access their grants once the specified contract ends; (2) (a) what are the relevant (i) details of the transitional plans that (aa) her department and/or (bb) SASSA have put in place to ensure that there is no interruption in the distribution of social grants to the grant recipients once the contract with Net1 ends on 31 March 2017 and (ii) details of the processes that will be involved for the grant recipients, (b) from which budget will the specified transitional plans be funded and (c) which of the various work streams set up by her department to action the transition of the distribution of social grants from Net1 to SASSA will be in charge of ensuring the smooth (i) operation of the transitional plans and (ii) distribution of social grants?
Reply:
(1) I would like to inform the Honourable Member that the SASSA beneficiary card has two encryptions, namely the UPS encryption which expires in March 2017 and the MasterCard encryption which expires in December 2017.
(2) With regard to the transitional plans, I have already informed the Honourable Member of the work currently underway through the five work streams to oversee this process and to ensure a smooth transition that will ensure a seamless transition and that no single beneficiary will be negatively affected by this transition.