Pensioner returns to Sassa a fourth time as funeral policy deductions drain her grant

Christine Southgate has been to the Sassa office in Delft four times to stop a funeral cover deduction she says she never agreed to, and on Monday she told the Social Development minister so in person.

Southgate was one of about a dozen grant beneficiaries who spoke during an oversight visit by minister Dina Pule and Sassa chief executive Themba Matlou at the Delft office. She told Pule she cannot afford her water and electricity bills because of money coming off her pension.

“Since March this year, Emerald has been deducting money from my pension, yet I never signed any forms or gave consent for this. I already have burial cover through my church,” she said.

Monday was her fourth visit to the office to try to resolve it. She left without being assisted, but a Sassa official took her details and promised to help.

Other beneficiaries at Delft complained about deductions for Clientele Life policies. The company has asked for their details so the cases can be investigated. Emerald Life was approached for comment and had not responded at the time of publication.

The visit was the minister’s own, undertaken to hear directly from beneficiaries and staff. Pule said she wanted to get feedback at first hand and to encourage officials to keep up their work, because they serve a large number of people every day. At the registration desk she asked how many people had been helped by 12:30 and was told more than 100. She promised to bring in more officials to help people.

Not everyone came with a complaint. Some beneficiaries told the minister about positive experiences at the office, particularly the friendliness of Sassa staff. Others raised long queues, insufficient toilets, and asked her to increase the value of social grants.

At Sassa’s Bellville office, which Pule visited over a month ago, the picture on Monday was mixed. Staff had complained to her at that earlier visit about the slow biometric verification system piloted there and about staff shortages.

Rachel Lott, from Elsies River, arrived at 7am to get help with her disability grant and found people already waiting outside. She has been visiting the office since May without resolution. “Everything is taking too long. The children and old people must come stand here in the cold early in the morning,” she said.

Nathan Jordan said he arrived at about 5:10am. “We stand outside against the walls and that is not appropriate as it is cold and we are elderly people,” he said. It was his second visit to get help with his old age grant.

Others said they had seen an improvement. Naomi Basson, who applied for a pension last month and was given an appointment date to return, said she was helped that morning and the service was good. Christabel De Jager said the queue was moving more quickly than on her previous visits.

For a South African reader, the Delft complaints sit inside a system that pays grants to millions of households every month and is the main source of income for many of them. A deduction of even a small monthly amount matters more when the grant is the whole budget. The law on social assistance deductions is that a beneficiary must consent, and Sassa has previously run crackdowns on payments it regarded as irregular, including suspending 70 000 grant payments in one such operation.

The minister’s answer to the complaints is on the record: more officials will be brought in to help people, and the visit was intended to hear what beneficiaries and staff are dealing with. The larger questions, including how an unauthorised funeral policy deduction is stopped and how quickly, remain open.

As Moneyweb reported on 24 September, Pule and Matlou visited the Delft office and heard from pensioners about deductions from their grants. Moneyweb’s account is accurate on the events it describes. What a South African reader brings to it is the context above, and what the department and Sassa do next.

This paper will follow the Delft cases and the department’s response as they develop.