SASSA has a message for those who receive the R350 grant about their cellphone numbers. The R350 grant is disbursed to millions of unemployed South Africans.
Make sure your sim card is RICA’d is the latest message from SASSA to Special Relief of Distress (SRD) grant beneficiaries.
This however applies to those SRD grant beneficiaries who receive their SASSA grant payments through cardless banking at an ATM.
The following message was shared on SASSA’s social media:
Applicants of the special COVID-19 SRD grant should please ensure that the cellphone number they use has gone through the RICA process if they choose to be paid through cardless banking at an ATM.
In explaining this, SASSA said this needs to be done because when you want to withdraw your grant from merchants, the till PIN is sent to the cellphone number you provided when you submitted your SRD grant application.
The Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication Related Information Act (RICA) is a South African law that regulates the interception of communications and associated processes. The law requires citizens to register their sim cards in order to be RICA compliant.
If you need to change the phone number SASSA should use, you should call SASSA’s call centre on 0800 60 10 11.
The agency further said that beneficiaries who chose to receive their R350 grant payment through a bank account should ensure that the bank account they’re using is registered in their name.
R350 grant payments can be collected by the Post Office, through a bank account, through Cashsend or at PicknPay and Boxer stores. You will receive your SRD grant payment through the payment method you chose when applying.
It’s important to remember that there is no set R350 grant payment date. However, SASSA has promised that grant payments will be made for the months that you qualify for.