Grant beneficiaries back in post office queues after promise of resolved payment glitches

South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) beneficiaries who did not receive their payouts because of technical glitches this week were back at the post office on Thursday after the government promised payout problems were resolved.

Older persons' grants were supposed to be paid out on Tuesday and disability grants on Wednesday, but hundreds of beneficiaries did not receive the grants because of technical difficulties experienced by Postbank. This affected mostly those getting their grants at the post office. 

Postbank spokesperson Bongani Diako said problems faced by people using Postbank Sassa gold cards were resolved for all ATM and post office transactions by Thursday.

“This means Sassa customers using the Postbank Sassa gold cards can now access their social grants via ATMs and post office branches,” Diako said. 

The queues may get longer at post offices as all beneficiaries would receive payments on Thursday. The grant dates were previously separated to avoid lengthy queues.

While payout problems have been fixed at post office branches and ATMs, Diako said there were still challenges in withdrawals at some retailers.

“We apologise to our valued customers for the inconvenience caused by this incident and thank them for their patience. Postbank will continue providing updates.”

Diako said the technical problems were an isolated incident and not related to the validity of Postbank Sassa gold cards.

“Sassa gold cards remain valid as a means of accessing social grants payments despite the expiry date on the cards until Postbank replaces the cards.” 

Some people who receive their grants directly into their private bank accounts told TimesLIVE they had not experienced problems.

TimesLIVE