Sassa moves to plug double dipping of social grants loophole

THE SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) is looking at ways of linking up with databases of other state institutions to clamp down on civil servants who fraudulently receive social grants.

The move will see the agency accessing databases of municipalities, the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), the Government Employee Pension Fund and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) when processing social grant applications.

Although the social pensions system is configured to prevent and detect double dipping by accessing the personnel and salaries (Persal) management system used by national and provincial departments, some civil servants continue to defraud Sassa.

During an audit of the Covid-19 relief funds, the auditor-general found that 241 civil servants had pocketed the special R350 grants. Last year, Sassa detected 1768 SA Post Office employees who pocketed social grants to the tune of R1.5million per month.

There were also 4726 grant beneficiaries who received grants outside South Africa during the lockdown at a cost of R7m a month.

The prompted DA MP Mimmy Gondwe to ask Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu whether Sassa had plans to introduce measures other than the Persal access to prevent civil servants fraudulently applying for and receiving social grants.

In her response, Zulu said Sassa included in its 2021/22 operational plan a target to interface with databases of the UIF, the Government Pensions Administration Agency, NSFAS and Department of Correctional Services.

Zulu also said Sassa had commenced discussions with the Department of Co-operative Governance regarding accessing the database of municipal employees.