Truth about SASSA R350 Grant Extension until March 2024

SASSA SRD R350 was launched as a temporary grant by SASSA (South African Social Security Agency). Its aim was to help people living below the line of poverty and having no jobs to cope up with the economical challenges of Covid-19.

SRD r350 did well in helping people to survive the challenging times of Covid-19 era. To be eligible for this grant, you had to be either unemployed or fall under the category of disabled people or old people with a few other requirements.

The question is!

Is Sassa r350 Grant Extended?

Though COVID-19 is nearly gone, its aftereffects are still here, and since SRD R350 was doing well in helping people, the Government of South Africa released a statement.

So yes, it is TRUE, the SASSA grant is further extended till March 2025.

There is also a petition on change.org to increase the SASSA grant; you can sign it as well.

Will the SRD r350 Grant be Permanent?

Though this grant is helpful for many citizens, it is a huge burden on the reserves of the government. The South African food poverty line is R624, and many lobby groups are pushing to either raise this grant to this level or make it permanent.

According to the National Treasury, the Covid-19 SRD grant is expected to grow by at least 8.8% every year and its financial implications could reach some R64.9 billion in the 2030/31 financial year.

Even in some cases, when people do a SASSA SRD status check, they end up with pending status due to low funds.

Furthermore, increasing the grant would be a huge burden, and considering the current inflation, it doesn’t seem likely to happen anytime soon. Neither the grant will be changed to R624, nor will it be permanent.

If somehow government can arrange funds, they might make this permanent but increasing to R624 is highly unlikely.