sassa and post office 2023-2024

System faults have led to payment problems for Sassa funds. Sassa has, however, taken steps to avoid payment snafus.

It seems like faults and system issues plague the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) frequently. On Thursday afternoon, Sassa sent a statement instructing recipients to pick up their money at alternative locations.

Beneficiaries are now being asked to go to their closest merchant or ATM to collect their Sassa money due to system troubles at Post Office locations today. This only pertained to Sassa gold card holders because R350 grants can no longer be picked up at Post Offices.

… system issues at Post Office locations affect over-the-counter withdrawals.

Sassa beneficiaries are not the only ones who will be impacted by these problems; Postbank clients who want to make in-person deposits and withdrawals will also be impacted.

The list of accessible retailers includes any national retailer that provides cashback, including Shoprite, Checkers, Usave, Pick n Pay, and Boxer.

Due to the gold card’s ability to function similarly to other bank cards within the public installments system, it can also be used at locations that accept credit cards.

Interim CEO of Postbank, Lucas Ndala, said:

We apologize for the inconvenience caused to our SASSA social grant recipients and Postbank clients. We take every service interruption seriously.

Our IT teams have been given the urgent responsibility of resolving the technical issues affecting the over-the-counter branch transactions, he continued.

According to Sassa, Postbank will send out a notification once the problem has been fixed.

Post Office on a problem with the SASSA grant payment methods

According to Postbank, the system flaws that affected payments have been rectified, allowing SASSA social grants recipients who use SASSA gold cards to now pick up their grant monies at ATMs and shops around the country.
The problems with the payments system have been fixed as of Saturday afternoon, 5 November 2022, and we have been experiencing stability with successful ATM and retail transactions.
Most of the more than 7 million recipients of social handouts who use Postbank-issued SASSA gold cards withdraw money from shops and ATMs.
As a result, recipients of SASSA social handouts should proceed to withdraw their money from ATMs and national retail establishments like Shoprite, Checkers, Usave, Pick & Pay, and Boxer that offer cash back.
Recipients of SASSA grants may also use the SASSA gold cards to make purchases at any location that accepts bank card transactions because they operate entirely within the national payments system in the same way as any other bank card.
Postbank is monitoring system performance in Post Office branches as of today, November 7, 2022, and notifying beneficiaries of any changes.
Postbank regrets the trouble these system problems have caused to the recipients of our SASSA social handouts. We deeply regret any inconvenience the system error has caused. We are aware that social grants are essential to the survival of the most disadvantaged members of our community.