Parolee released in January denied special R350 grant because he's been 'working' for past 18 months

A parolee who came out of prison this year was declined the special R350 grant on the grounds that he has been working for the past 18 months.

This is one of the examples of a flawed government system in which legitimate applicants are told they don't qualify for the Covid-19 social relief of distress grant, according to IFP MP Liezl van der Merwe.

The 34-year-old Inanda man was released from the Durban B medium prison on parole in January. TimesLIVE has seen his stamped parole papers.

When he applied for the special six month grant announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in April, meant for all who are unemployed and not receiving grants or UIF payments, his application was rejected.

The man approached the IFP's constituency office for assistance. Van der Merwe said the office receives about 50 such complaints every day.

“He did reach out to us (the IFP) for help after he was told his R350 application was rejected because he had been working for the past 18 months.

“When I contacted Sassa (SA social security agency) they said he was first rejected because he's been working. Now, we've got his parole papers, they say it's the details in his ID that don’t match the national population register,” she said.

“So it just another one of the double trouble excuses that don’t add up,” said Van der Merwe.

TimesLIVE also spoke to a Johannesburg father whose application was declined because the home affairs national population register does not recognise him.

Former policeman Avhapfani Jeffrey Khangale of Rabie Ridge, Midrand, resigned from the police in 2002 and survives by doing piece jobs. With the introduction of the lockdown, the piece jobs dried up.

“I applied for the special grant before May 15, but getting the money has now become a headache,” said the 52-year-old.

On June 21, Sassa rejected his application. “Your details do not match ID. Visit Sassa website or phone call centre to correct,” reads a text from the agency.

“I found the statement to be too vague because they don't say what exactly doesn't match. Is it my address? Is it ID numbers?

“I am a former policeman, I am a South African. I have voted using the same ID and have renewed my licence with this ID,” said Khangale.

In an e-mailed response to Van der Merwe who assisted Khangale, Sassa said he was first rejected based on UIF, and was declined again because his details do not match the home affairs national population register.

This week, out of the blue, Sassa informed Van der Merwe, it has approved Khangale's application. He is yet to receive the money.

Prebashini Naidoo from Phoenix is another applicant who was told she doesn't qualify. She resigned from her debt collecting job in May 2019. She lives with her 79-year-old mother who receives a pension grant.

Naidoo and her unemployed 20-year-old son, applied for the grant in May, but their applications were declined.

“They didn't even inform me but my landlord checked and they told him I may be receiving the UIF,” she said.

But the UIF told her she has no benefits due to her.

She lodged a second application for the grant in June, and that is still pending.

“It's quite frustrating. Being unemployed means I don't have data. Sometimes I go to my landlord and use his Wi-Fi to check but there's absolutely nothing,” she said.

Sassa spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi said the system the agency uses is bespoke and was developed exclusively for the special relief grant. It is an entirely electronic process, he said.

Letsatsi explained that the processing of applications is done by checking the ID against various databases provided to Sassa which include the UIF, Covid-19 temporary employee relief scheme benefits, the national student financial aid scheme and home affairs to confirm citizenship.

“The decisions made are only as accurate as the information received in these databases,” he said.

When the initial processing of applications was done, a number of applicants were declined because they were found on the UIF database, said Letsatsi.

Sassa has since received updated UIF information and declined applications were re-run. Of the initial two million that were declined, about half have since been approved for payment, he said.

He said where the information provided by the applicant does not match that held by home affairs, the application cannot be processed and the applicant has to correct it.

Some applicants use nicknames or maiden names instead of the information in their ID documents, which leads to the rejection.

Letsatsi said they have developed a recourse mechanism which will be gazetted shortly.

This will also function on electronic verification of the applicant’s ID against the available information

Sassa has received more than 8.3-million applications since the system opened. Just over five-million have been approved.