SOCIAL GRANTS

Grants available include:

  • Child Support Grant
  • Care Dependency Grant
  • Foster Child Grant
  • Disability Grant
  • Grant in Aid
  • Older Person’s Grant
  • War Veteran’s Grant
  • Social Relief of Distress Grant
  • Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant

Applicants for social grants must be South African citizens, permanent residents or refugees and currently living in South Africa.

Except for the Foster Child Grant and the Grant in Aid, social grants in South Africa are currently “means tested”. The means test is the process of assessing the value of your assets and income. You will only be eligible for a grant if your income and assets fall below a certain threshold. This threshold is different for all the grants and will depend on whether or not you are married. The amount you receive for your Old Age Grant and the Disability Grant is also determined by the means test and you may not necessarily receive the maximum amount offered by SASSA.

If you do some work or have another source of income but still really need social assistance you can still apply for a grant. You must declare all your income and assets to SASSA. If you receive the disability grant, old-age grant or war veterans grant your monthly money will be reduced according to how much money you earn.

If you are admitted to a state institution for an extended period of time, the value of your Old Age Grant, Disability Grant or War Veteran’s Grant will be reduced to 25% of its value from the 4th month following your admission until you are discharged.

Child Support Grant

The value of the Child Support Grant is R480 per month from April 2022.

To receive this grant you must be the primary care giver of a child who also lives with you in South Africa. If you are not the biological parent of the child, you must provide proof of your primary caregiver status. This can be an affidavit from a police official, a social worker’s report, an affidavit from the biological parent of the child, or a letter from the school principal of the child.

Children must be under the age of 18. Children must not be cared for in a state institution. You cannot apply for more than six non-biological or legally adopted children.

In order to qualify for the grant you need to meet the requirements of the means test. If you are single you must not earn more than R55,200 per annum (R4,600) per month and if you are married, your combined income must not be more than R110,400 (R9,200).

Care Dependency Grant

The value of the Care Dependency Grant is R1,980 per month from April 2022, and R1,990 from October 2022.

The Care Dependency Grant is given to the caregivers of children with disabilities. The child must be found permanently and severely medically disabled by a medical officer and must be under the age of 18. The child cannot be cared for in a state institution.

In order to qualify for the grant you need to meet the requirements of the means test. If you are single, you must not earn more than R226,800 per year (R18,900 per month) and if you are married your household cannot earn more than R453,600 per year (R37,800).

Foster Child Grant

The value of the Foster Child Grant is R1,070 per month from April 2022.

To meet the requirements for this grant both you and the child you care for must live in South Africa. The child must be under the age of 18 years old and there must be a court order indicating that you have been designated the foster carer for the child.

There is no means test for foster parents. The child must remain in the care of the foster parent.

Disability Grant

The maximum value of the Disability Grant is R1,980 per month from April 2022, and R1,990 from October 2022.

In order to qualify for this grant you must be between the age of 18 and 59 years. You must be found medically unfit for work by a medical officer because of a mental or physical disability. The grant is available on a permanent or temporary basis for between six and twelve months. When your temporary grant expires and you have not recovered sufficiently to return to work you will need to apply for the grant again. Your permanent grant can be reviewed in order to assess whether you are in fact still disabled. See Frequently asked questions about social grants for more details on eligibility for the disability grant.

You cannot be the recipient of other grants, and must not be cared for in a state institution.

In order to qualify for the grant, you need to meet the requirements of the means test. If you are single your income cannot be more than R87,720 per year (R7,310 per month) and your assets cannot be worth more than R1,247,400. If you are married your combined income cannot exceed R175,440 (R14,620 per month) and combined assets can be no more than R2,494,800.

Grant-in-Aid

The value of Grant-in-Aid is R480 per month from April 2022.

If you are living on a social grant but can’t look after yourself you can get an additional grant to pay the person who takes full-time care of you

The Grant-in-Aid is an extra grant for people receiving disability, older persons or war veteran’s grants who, because of their mental or physical disabilities, are unable to look after themselves and need to pay a full-time caregiver. In order to receive this grant, you will need to be assessed by a medical officer. You cannot receive this grant if you are being cared for in a state institution.

Older Person’s Grant (Old Age Pension)

The maximum value of the Older Person’s Grant is R1,980 per month from April 2022, and R1,990 from October 2022. If you are over the age of 75, you will receive R2,000 per month from April 2022, and R2,010 from October 2022.

You can apply for this grant if you are 60 years or older. You cannot be a recipient of other grants, and you must not be under the care of a state institution.

In order to qualify for the grant, you need to meet the requirements of the means test. If you are single your income cannot be more than R87,720 per year (R7,310 per month) and your assets cannot be worth more than R1,247,400. If you are married your combined income cannot exceed R175,440 (R14,620 per month) and combined assets can be no more than R2,494,800.

War Veteran’s Grant

The maximum value of the grant is R1,980 per month from April 2022, and R1,990 from October 2022, according to SASSA’s 2022 schedule. (This seems to be at odds with the 2022 Budget, in which the average value of this grant in 2022 is supposed to be R2,005.)

To qualify for this grant you must have fought in World War I, World War II or the Korean War. You must also be over the age of 60 or disabled. You cannot be a recipient of other grants and must not be cared for in a state institution.

In order to qualify for the grant you need to meet the requirements of the means test. If you are single your income cannot be more than R87,720 per year (R7,310 per month) and your assets cannot be worth more than R1,247,400. If you are married your combined income cannot exceed R175,440 (R14,620 per month) and combined assets can be no more than R2,494,800.

Social Relief of Distress

Social relief of distress is temporary assistance for people in the following situations:

  • You need help while you wait for your children’s grants to be processed
  • A crisis or disaster has occurred (e.g. your house has burnt down)
  • You do not qualify for a grant, and you are in a desperate situation
  • You are disabled for a period of less than six months and therefore not eligible for a disability grant
  • You are unable to get maintenance from the other parent of your child or children
  • The breadwinner in the family has died
  • The breadwinner has been sent to prison for a short time (less than six months)
  • You have been affected by a disaster, but the area or community in which you live has not been declared a disaster area.

Social Relief of Distress is issued monthly for a maximum period of three months. An extension of a further three months may be granted in exceptional cases. You cannot apply for this grant if you are already the recipient of a different grant.

Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress

This is a grant that pays R350 per month. It is temporary, and was extended to run until March 2023. Should your application be successful, payment will be backdated to the month you applied for the grant.

To qualify for the new Covid-19 SRD grant, you must be:

  • A South African citizen, permanent resident or refugee registered with Home Affairs
  • Above 18 years old
  • Unemployed
  • Not receiving any income
  • Not receiving any social grant (with the exception of Child Support Grants)
  • Not receiving any UIF benefit and not qualifying to receive any UIF benefit
  • Not staying in a government-funded institution.

The information you have to give SASSA is the following:

  • ID number
  • Name and surname as in ID and initials
  • Gender and any disability
  • Banking details: bank name and account number
  • Contact details (cell phone number)
  • Proof of residential address

You can only apply electronically:

SASSA will only ask for your bank details once the application has been approved. You should never give your PIN number.

How to apply

You should apply at the SASSA office nearest to where you live. If you are too old or too sick to apply for the grant at the office you may have a friend or family member apply on your behalf. You can also arrange for a home visit, although you may wait a while for this.

The application forms must be completed in the presence of a SASSA officer. When you hand in your application you will be given a receipt as proof of application. The application is free. You will receive written notification if your application is denied. You have the right to ask for reconsideration and you can also lodge an appeal within 90 days.

Applicants must provide proof of identity. If you do not have a 13-digit barcoded Identity Book or birth certificate for children, you may provide alternative documentation as proof of identity. Contact your nearest SASSA office to find out which alternative documents are accepted.

Other documents required for application: If married, provide ID of your spouse and proof of spousal relationship (marriage certificate, divorce order, a sworn statement, or spouse’s death certificate). Sworn statement or affidavit stating the income and assets of yourself and your spouse. Supporting documents to prove your income and assets. You must also provide proof of the income of dependent children.

The application process takes up to 90 days and your first payment will include back-pay for the time you wait to receive the grant. This is calculated from the first day of application.

Note: When affidavits are required, SASSA will provide the affidavits to be completed.

Your SASSA card

If your grant application is successful you will receive a SASSA card and a bank account where your money will be deposited each month. This card is associated with MasterCard and can be used as a debit card and you can either use it to make purchases, check your balance or withdraw cash at till points wherever MasterCard is accepted without incurring any transaction costs. You can also withdraw money with your card at ATMs, but you will be charged transaction charges. You and other people can also deposit money into this account.

SASSA Hotline 0800 601 011

For more SASSA Contact Details

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