YOUTH ACCOUNT FOR 60% OF COVID-19 SRD APPLICATIONS – SASSA

Young people account for 60% of Covid-19 SRD applications – Sassa

Through citizen reporter Reporter |

About 60% of the SRD grant applications are young people, the South African Social Security Agency (sassa) announced.

The agency blames the high unemployment rate and says it is a major cause for concern.

“This correlates with the youth unemployment rate, which is about 60% of all applicants (youth and non-youth), about 5% have tertiary qualifications,” Sassa said.

Although the number of unemployed young people decreased slightly in the first quarter, young people remained vulnerable in the labor market.

In the first quarter, the total number of unemployed young people aged 15-34 fell by 0.1% (5,000) to 4.7 million in the fourth quarter and a noticeable increase in the number of young people in work by 5.0% (244,000) , resulting in a decrease in youth unemployment from 1.2 percentage points to 47.8% in the first quarter.

“The agency remains committed to playing its part in fighting the scourge of unemployment,” Sassa said.

“Sassa has made great strides in its efforts to alleviate poverty and provide a lifeline to the most vulnerable in society through the Covid-19 SRD.”

The subsidy has been introduced for working-age citizens who are not covered by the social assistance safety net.

Minister Lindiwe Zulu, who put the ministry’s budget vote in the National Assembly in May, said the Ministry of Social Development would allocate R44 billion for the Covid-19 SRD grant for the fiscal year 2022/23.

The current application period – April 2022 to March 2023 – opened on April 23. Since then, more than 8.1 million South Africans have applied for the grant.

Zulu said, “I assure all eligible applicants that they will receive their payments for this repeat of the grant by June”.

The allocation of R44 million will ensure that approximately 10 million approved applicants will receive the Covid-19 SRD grant each month.

Sassa said it made progress on payments for this special grant, with approximately 5,298,817 applications already approved as of July 19, 2022 and 4,088,873 of those having received payment.

“The agency would like to reiterate that Covid-19 SRD applications are made strictly online and not at Sassa offices.”

Meanwhile, Sassa has announced payment dates for August:

The benefit for the elderly will be paid from Tuesday 2 August The benefit for the disabled will be paid from Wednesday 3 August All other grants will be paid from Thursday 4 August

“The first day you don’t have to rush to withdraw money. Once the money is in the account, it stays there until it is needed.”

The end!

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You can also check > THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT PROPOSED TO INCREASE THE THRESHOLD OF R350 SASSA SUBSIDY TO R624 PER MONTH

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