The South African Social Security

Agency (SASSA) said the national pilot project will from Monday the start accepting online social grant application and is at this stage expected to cover Child Support, Older Persons, and Foster Child grants. However in KwaZulu-Natal, the pilot project will cover Child Support grants applications only for now which will be

executed and restricted to Umsunduzi. Sassa KZN Spokesperson Sandy Godlwana said testing of the system will run from 14 September 2020 till 25 September

  1. Applications can be lodged on https://services.sassa.gov.za which is a

secure website. She said after reviewing the system other grants will also be added to the portal and this

should be a relief to grant applicants as it will save them the

inconvenience of standing in queues at SASSA offices in order to apply for

their grants. She added that advantage is that the convenience of online

applications eliminates the risk of being infected with the COVID-19 virus

because there will be no need to gather at public places in order to apply.

Godlwana said remote self-service will be possible on both a computer and a mobile phone and The turnaround time is 10 days, provided the applicant supplies all the stipulated documents such as identity documents of applicant and spouse as well as banking details among others.

This will enable access to the following SASSA services:

v Applications for grants for Foster child grant, Older persons grant and Child

Support grant

v Online submission of the required supporting documentation linked to the

application;

v Change of circumstances (Payment method, banking details, address);

v Status of application

To access this service, applicants need to have an email address to sign up

and to be able to login for further services. Feedback to applicants will be sent