The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) has officially approved the status of grant applicants for the Special Relief of Distress (SRD) grant for August 2023. SASSA SRD Status for August 2023 was approved for eligible candidates at 22 August 2023. This means that eligible applicants who applied for the R350 grant last month can now check the status of their application and see if they have been approved to receive the grant for this month.
The SRD grant was introduced by the government in 2020 as a temporary measure to provide financial relief to low-income South Africans who lost income due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. Since then, the grant has been extended several times and is set to continue until March 2024.
According to SASSA, a total of 18 million people have applied for the SRD grant since it launched. For August 2023, over 7 million applicants were approved to receive the R350 payment. SASSA reviews applications and approves or declines applicants on a month-to-month basis, so even if you qualified for the SRD grant in previous months, you need to reapply and be reassessed for each new month.
Checking Your SRD Status for August 2023
If you applied for the SRD grant last month, you can now check the status of your application by:
- Logging into your SASSA SRD online account (https://srd.sassa.gov.za/)
- Visiting your nearest SASSA office
- Calling the SASSA helpline on 0800 60 10 11
Your status will show as either “Approved”, “Pending”, “Declined” or “Other”.
Approved means your grant application was successful and you will receive your R350 by the end of August. The money will be paid into the bank account you provided when applying.
Pending means your application is still being processed and reviewed by SASSA. If you remain on pending status by month-end, you will unfortunately not be paid for that month.
Declined means your application was rejected and you do not qualify for the SRD grant for August. Common reasons for being declined include exceeding the income threshold, receiving other grants, being a minor, or incomplete application details.
Why Your SRD Status Might Not Be Updated
If you have checked your status and it still reflects an old month rather than showing August 2023, there are a few possible reasons:
- Delays in processing new applications due to high volumes
- Backlogs and delays between application and status updates
- Technical errors failing to update your status
- You have not reapplied – status won’t update if you don’t reapply
The best thing to do is contact SASSA to query your status if it has not updated. You can call the SASSA helpline, visit your nearest office, or try logging out and back into your online account. Be sure to reapply each month even if your status still shows an old month. This will prompt the system to reassess you for the latest month.
It is understandable that having the wrong status or no status update can be frustrating. But rest assured SASSA is working tirelessly to get through millions of applications each month and ensure all eligible applicants get their SRD grant on time. As long as you reapply and keep checking your status, any issues can be swiftly resolved so that you can get your much-needed financial relief.
