SASSA old age grant of R2 400 has to stretch to five people, KwaZulu-Natal pensioner says
A retired homeowner in KwaZulu-Natal says a grant he rates as well administered still runs out before the month does, a squeeze roughly 18 million grant recipients share.
Aaron Kibi has been drawing the SASSA Older Persons’ Grant for less than a year. The retired homeowner lives in KwaZulu-Natal, receives R2 400 a month paid straight into his Capitec Bank account, and supports between three and five people on it. Almost all of it goes to food and groceries. By the end of the month, he says, nothing is left.
As The South African reported on 18 September, Kibi’s one request is a higher payout. The grant, in his account, is helpful but not enough to cover a household’s basic needs.
That is the arithmetic a large share of South African households are running every month. Roughly 18 million people receive a SASSA grant of some kind. For pensioners on a fixed payout, the gap between the deposit date and the next one is where the pressure sits.
What the grant is, and what it is not
The Older Persons’ Grant is a monthly cash transfer paid by the South African Social Security Agency to people who have reached pension age. It is means tested, which is why a recipient who owns a home can still qualify while a household earning above the threshold cannot. It is not a wage replacement and it was never designed to carry a family. In practice, in households where work is scarce, it often does.
Kibi’s case shows the shape of that. He has not applied for any other government support because he did not qualify for it. Owning his own home removes a rent or bond payment from the month, and he says that offers some cushioning. It does not close the gap. With several dependents on one deposit, the money does not stretch far enough.
His biggest worry is the cost of living, and food prices in particular. That is the line item that moves fastest and the one a fixed income cannot absorb.
The part that worked
Kibi’s assessment of the agency itself is positive, and it is worth recording plainly. He rates SASSA’s communication with recipients as very good, and he reports no problems accessing his payments. He lives under five kilometres from services, which spares him the transport costs that burden recipients in rural districts and in areas far from a pay point.
He also defends the purpose of the system. In his words, SASSA assists in poverty alleviation and needy people. That is a recipient describing an institution that is doing the administrative job it was given, while saying the amount is too small. Both things are true at once, and a reader should hold them together.
What a South African reader should take from it
Three things sit behind a story like this, and none of them is visible from the outside.
First, the payout date is a household event. When a grant lands, the month’s food buying happens in the days immediately after. The last week is the tight one, and it is the week that shows up at spaza shops as smaller baskets and at supermarkets as a switch to cheaper staples.
Second, the number of people a grant carries is not in the grant. One deposit supporting three to five people is a household arrangement, not a policy design, and it means a single administrative figure is doing work far beyond its stated purpose.
Third, the distance to a pay point is money. Kibi’s five kilometres keeps his transport costs near zero. Recipients who live further out pay taxi fare to reach the same money, and that fare comes out of the grant before anything reaches the table.
The pressure on the amount
The size of the grant is set in the national Budget, which means the question Kibi raises is a fiscal one rather than an administrative one. The agency can pay accurately and on time, as he says it does, and still hand over an amount that a household outgrows. Food inflation does the rest.
That is the distinction his account makes clear. A well-run payment system and an adequate payment are two separate tests, and passing the first says nothing about the second.
SASSA has not responded to a request for comment on the adequacy of the Older Persons’ Grant against current food prices. The next adjustment to grant amounts will be announced with the Budget, which is when the question Kibi put will get its next answer.
Source: The South African, Pensioner’s SASSA money vanishes to nothing by month-end. Here’s what he wants instead
