More people will now qualify for the R350 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant after the means test threshold was increased from R350 to R624.
Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu on Tuesday made her final proposal to raise the means test for the SRD grant to R624 per month.
Previously, any person who earned or received more than R350 per month would not qualify to receive the grant. With the means test threshold moved to R624, more people will not be able to apply and qualify.
The amendment also makes changes to the frequency of the means test by removing the requirement for applicants to indicate if they require to receive the grant after every three months. The value of the grant will remain the same per person every month until 31 March 2023. The new regulations were gazetted on Tuesday.
When the changes were first proposed in July, Zulu highlighted concerns around the number of applications that were being rejected due to the low threshold.
“Out of 11.4 million applicants for the month of June, only 5.2 million beneficiaries were approved. This represents less than 50%of the application.”
While the means test threshold will allow more people to qualify for the SRD grant, the department also announced that it would be helping the grant beneficiaries in getting employment.
Source: The South Africa, Fin24, SABC News, Business Tech, image from Twitter