Pensioners get November money on 30 October, then must stretch it past 2 December

Pensioners will be paid their November Older Persons Grant on Friday 30 October, not in the first week of November, under a revised SASSA schedule drawn up around the local government elections on 4 November.

The Disability Grant follows on Monday 2 November and the Children’s Grants on Tuesday 3 November. SASSA has set aside Thursday 5 November for beneficiaries whose grants are under review. The agency said the revised dates follow consultations with stakeholders and are meant to keep payments running efficiently and securely through the election period, and it urged beneficiaries not to visit its offices unnecessarily because payments will be processed on the announced schedule.

As The South African reported on 21 October, the change has landed among pensioners who say the grant itself is the problem. The Older Persons Grant pays R2 400 a month to recipients aged 60 and older. In comments on that outlet’s Facebook page, grant recipients said the amount no longer covers basic needs, and several proposed remedies of their own rather than accepting the new dates as the answer.

One commenter, Donovan Serfontein, wrote that government had turned its back on older South Africans. Another, Enock Thembekile Jakeni, asked SASSA to issue a card giving pensioners a 25 percent discount in stores and supermarkets. Shipho Khosi put the choice plainly, asking for either a discount at shops or an increase in the pension. SASSA has not announced plans for either proposal.

The arithmetic of the new calendar is what pensioners will feel first. An Older Persons Grant paid on 30 October has to carry a household until December’s payment, which is expected on 2 December. That is more than a month on money that recipients already describe as too little, and it arrives in the same weeks as the Christmas food shopping, school holidays and the annual rise in transport and grocery costs that South African households plan around in November and December.

For a reader who has not followed the schedule before, the Older Persons Grant is the non-contributory monthly payment the state makes to South Africans aged 60 and over, and for many older households it is the only regular income in the house. It is also frequently the income that grandchildren and adult children out of work depend on, which is why the gap between an early November payment and a December payment is felt across a household and not only by the named beneficiary.

SASSA’s own schedule places the Disability Grant two days after the Older Persons Grant and the Children’s Grants the day after that, so the three streams will reach pay points and bank accounts in a single week ahead of the 4 November vote. Beneficiaries whose grants are under review have the 5 November date set aside for them.

The agency has not said whether the November dates will be repeated in future election years, and it has not responded publicly to the calls for a store discount or a higher grant. What is fixed for now is the calendar: Older Persons Grant on 30 October, Disability Grant on 2 November, Children’s Grants on 3 November, reviews on 5 November, and December’s Older Persons Grant expected on 2 December.