Cape Town - The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) said it has noted with concern challenges faced by social grant recipients with regard to replacing their expired gold cards.
This is as many grant recipients rush to renew their gold cards before the end of April.
According to Sassa, the gold card is issued by the Postbank, and it enables grant recipients to transact using the card and PIN code within the National Payment System (NPS) at bank ATMs, South African Post Office (Sapo) branches and Cash Pay Points (CPP).
By law, all Visa and MasterCards expire after five years and have to be renewed.
According to Sassa spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi, there are about 5.9 million social grant recipients who transact using the Sassa gold cards.
He said the majority of the gold cards would expire by June 2023.
“Clients are urged to check the expiry date of their cards. All client payments will be processed as normal, and funds are safely stored in the client’s bank accounts.
“To avoid non-access to these funds in the client's bank accounts, recipients have the option to either replace the Sassa gold card at the identified SAPO branches or an alternative venue provided by Postbank, a participating retailer or make use of the cardless withdrawal option provided by Postbank.
“Alternatively, clients can also utilize the services of another bank. Due to this, clients will need to request a change of payment method at their nearest local office or alternative venue that Sassa will make available specifically for this project,” Letsatsi said.
If grant recipients choose to get their social grant payments through their personal bank account, Sassa has advised them to bring along the following documents:
Proof of bank account from the bank, or
a three-month bank statement that depicts personal details of the client and bank accounts and
Proof of identification.
The documents should be submitted at the nearest Sassa office to mandate Sassa to pay the social grant into the chosen personal bank account.
While there is no limit to how many times beneficiaries can change their method of payment, Sassa does advise that the request to change the method of payment only be done once a month.
Sassa said it intends on increasing its capacity to enable faster processing of requests for change of method of payment and will be extending its office operating hours to accommodate any increase by clients.
robin.francke@inl.co.za
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