Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu has proposed that the R350 social relief of distress (SRD) grant be paid to people who earn less than R624 per month.
This change is contained in the Government Gazette published on Friday with comments open until July 29. In the gazette, Zulu indicated that the threshold would be amended from time to time, with the agreement of the finance minister Enoch Godongwana.
Zulu’s proposal follows intense scrutiny and public pressure from civil society organisations that demanded that she lift the income eligibility threshold from R350 to R624 and lift the budget cap of R44 billion cap to be able to support all those who qualify for the grant. The also demand the removal of the clause that forces applicants to reapply every three months.
Last month Zulu said R44 billion was set aside to pay qualifying beneficiaries, she said the budget will provide a monthly R350 to 10.5 million people until end of March next year.
“Aspects of the regulations had to be strengthened to strengthen our fraud prevention and deter those who are not the intended beneficiaries from accessing the grant. The department will provide the R350 grant to fewer people in the third iteration than in second iteration,” said Zulu.
According to deputy director-general of the department Brenda Sibeko, all the applicants will undergo “a means test”.
“A proxy means test consists of checks against databases that may indicate income or alternative financial assistance and verification of insufficient means with banks. If the results from the bank verification contradict results from data checks referred to in the sub-regulation, the results from the bank verification must be used to make the final determination,” read the criteria.
The criteria said if a person has more than one bank account, the person can only get the grant if both accounts are below the income threshold.
Source: Eyewitness News, Times Live, Business Day, IOL, Daily Maverick, image from Twitter