New 2025 SASSA verification process starts this WEEK
Here's all you need to know about the agency's new 2025 SASSA verification process. As we covered last month, the agency is being forced to tighten its belt in 2025 by government. The finance minister was going to raise VAT to keep South Africa's social welfare bill in check.
However, this was overturned in the High Court. And since then, new measures like the 2025 SASSA verification process have come into being. This is despite a ruling back in January that SASSA cannot legally turn applicants away purely on the grounds of budgetary constraints. To get monthly cash in your wallet, you'll need to pass SASSA's latest verification process. Image: File
Judge Twala ruled it unconstitutional that South African Social Security Agency grant applicants living below the poverty line be turned away simply because there was insufficient money to pay them each month. Now, the Department of Social Development (DSD) and National Development Agency are updating the 2025 SASSA verification process like so …
According to a post on SASSA's social media channels, starting from Saturday 7 June 2025, all new applicants will have to complete the 2025 SASSA verification process for R370 SRD grants. This involves taking a digital photo of yourself with a smartphone. Handling SASSA grants in-person are slowing becoming a thing of the past. Image: File
Furthermore, the release from the agency urges applicants to visit THIS website and have their smart ID card (and smartphone) ready. Unfortunately, applicants with the old 'green mamba' ID booklet will not pass the online verification process. The biometric portion of the 2025 SASSA verification process is to secure digital data of all grant recipients on file for safety reasons. And if there is no digital photo of you, you won't pass.
In the past, the agency has said biometric verification makes the grant system safer from fraud, corruption and identity theft. Unfortunately, civil society groups are quite rightly questioning the practicality behind it. How are SASSA SRD applicants living below the poverty line supposed to have access to a smart phone with internet access and a smart ID card? Many argue the 2025 SASSA verification process goes against the findings of Twala's High Court ruling earlier in the year, to which SASSA has taken leave to appeal …
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