Social grant payments were interrupted by suspicious activity that had been picked up by the Postbank in December 2023 The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has since introduced new measures to protect recipients of one of its grants.
In the last payment cycle for 2023, Post Bank picked up suspicious activity in its systems, which posed a cyber security threat for social grant beneficiaries that use the gold payment card to withdraw their funds at ATMs.
According to the government agency, social grant recipients will be alerted of any changes regarding their grants in time should any changes occur.
In a recently released statement, the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has announced:
SRD grant recipients will now be required to undergo identity verification through facial recognition.
The use of the Covid-19 SRD Biometric Identity Verification system will protect grant beneficiaries from instances of fraud.
But Sassa has made it clear that everyone who needs any of the following services would have to go through facial recognition identification verification:
- Clearing of a referred status
- Clients who have selected a Postbank account to be opened on their behalf.
- Clients wishing to update their mobile number.
- Clients requesting to be paid via the cash send method.
As part of the verification process, clients will be notified with two SMSes from Sassa, they will be required to click on a link that will be provided in the second text SMS and this link will only be valid for only 72 hours.
If, for some reason, the SRD client has received the notification from Sassa, then they will need to contact the Agency’s call centre on 0800 60 10 11 to request for the SMS to be re-sent.
Grant beneficiaries have also been encouraged to make use of their private bank accounts as another option of safe and easy payment. Sassa has stated that it will also be beneficial for them to use their correct banking details so that payments can be made on time.
