A Free State pensioner's grant arrives on time every month, and still runs out before the food does
Benjamin Skele receives his SASSA Older Person's Grant straight into his bank account without a single payment problem, yet he went without food last month.
Benjamin Skele has never had to chase his SASSA payment. The Free State pensioner receives his Older Person’s Grant directly into his TymeBank account every month, has collected it for three years, and rates the agency’s communication with recipients highly. As The South African reported on 25 September, his problem starts after the money lands.
Skele, in his early sixties, lives alone in government-subsidised housing. Nobody else depends on his income, and he keeps his other costs low. The Older Person’s Grant pays R2 400 a month to recipients aged 60 and over. He spends most of it on food and groceries, and it does not last. He ran out before the month ended, and he told the outlet’s grant survey that he went without food over the past month.
That is the shape of the gap. The grant is fixed for the year. Grocery prices are not, and Skele names the cost of living and rising food prices as his biggest financial worry. Careful spending cannot close a difference that widens every time a basic food basket costs more.
He has tried to secure additional government support beyond the grant. He was either declined or gave up on the process. He describes himself as unemployed and looking for work, with experience in admin and office work, but he can only travel under five kilometres for a job, which narrows what he can take.
Asked what one thing he would change about SASSA, Skele chose a higher grant amount. His biggest challenge with the system, he said, is knowing when to renew or reapply.
His experience is not unusual among older South Africans whose grants arrive on time and run dry long before the next payday. The payment system is doing what it was built to do. It moves R2 400 into an account on schedule. What it cannot do is stretch that amount across a month of rising food prices, and that is where the pressure sits for pensioners who live alone and have no second income to fall back on.
SASSA has not responded to the survey findings. The agency’s own payment record, on Skele’s account, is one of the things working. The gap he describes is on the other side of the transaction.
Source: The South African, Free State pensioner reveals the monthly gap his SASSA grant can’t close
