SASSA to help R350 grant beneficiaries find jobs by partnering with Public Works and Labour

When the Department of Social Development (DSD) tightened the qualifying requirements for the much-needed R350 grants, hundreds of thousands of grant applicants were left in limbo. After great fury and criticism, Lindiwe Zulu’s department began the process of increasing the grant’s income cap. She recently disclosed that the South African Social Security Agency is developing a strategy to assist recipients in finding jobs.

SASSA was given a budget of R44 billion for the fiscal year 2022-2023, sufficient to pay the R350 award to nearly 10.5 million individuals. In order to keep within this budget, the Agency reduced the income qualifying requirement from R595 to R350. Laetitia Arries, a member of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), questioned the DSD Minister on what her department would do to accommodate the “more than 500,000 people” excluded from the grant owing to budgetary limits on Friday, August 5.

The budget allotment for the current fiscal year is “slightly less” than the previous version of the grant, according to Zulu, who added that the Treasury has made more funds available to several agencies in order to “create desperately needed employment opportunities.”

The Minister then disclosed that SASSA is in the process of creating a data-sharing partnership with the Departments of Public Works and Infrastructure and Employment and Labour. The ultimate objective of this partnership is to provide R350 grant recipients with access to job opportunities.

Zulu said:

“Furthermore, the Department has finalised a framework on linking social protection beneficiaries to sustainable livelihoods initiatives, with the view to provide skills targeting the unemployed and those on the SRD database to enhance chances of employment”.

According to the Minister, these measures and sustainable livelihood projects are intended to create chances for those who cannot be assisted via the social grants system.

As previously reported, civil society organisations have supported the DSD’s proposal to raise the grant’s income threshold.