The Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress R350 grant was recently reinstated and applications for the grant have opened, but many wonder how long these payments will last.
In the 2022 State of the Nation Address President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the Special Covid-19 R350 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant would be extended.
The R350 SRD grant is set to be paid from 1 April 2022 until 31 March 2023.
Applications for the SRD grant opened on 23 April 2022 and the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has stated that new additional qualifying criteria has been added. This is because the R350 grant no longer functions under the State of Disaster Act but is now managed under the Social Assistance Act.
This means that the qualifying criteria, applications and budget has been changed.
Those who need financial assistance are urged to apply as soon as possible and individuals who have previously received the R350 grant have been reminded to reapply.
Sassa introduced the Special Covid-19 R350 SRD grants in 2020 to provide financial assistance to individuals who were unemployed and could not take care of the needs of themselves and their families, due to the challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Now the grant is available to provide temporary support to people who are in desperate financial need, making them unable to meet their families’ most basic necessities.
This could be due to any of the factors listed below:
- You need assistance 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 unable to work for a period of less than six month because you are medically unfit
- 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.
You may apply using the Sassa website: https://srd.sassa.gov.za/
Sassa says that applicants will be considered for the SRD grant from the month in which their application has been submitted, meaning that applications that were submitted in April will be considered as from April 2022.
Even after being approved for the SRD grant, Sassa will do regular checks on beneficiaries to ensure that they still meet the qualifying criteria before processing their grant payments.
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