Regulations for the R350 grant have undergone a number of changes since its first implementation. With the many changes that the grant has undergone, there have also been changes seen in the demographic of applicants who applied for it.
After President Cyril Ramaphosa lifted the state of the nation disaster in April 2024, new regulations were implemented when the Department of Social Development (DSD) opened new applications for the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant.
The department has confirmed that 11.4 million applications had been received by the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa), most of which were 57% females . According to the breakdown given by Sassa, under 35s accounted for 60% of the grant applications.
In an interview, Sassa’s Executive Manager for Grants, Brenton Van Vrede said:
This correlates to the unemployment rate amongst youth being the highest.
The government agency has revealed that approximately 5% of the total applications were submitted by unemployed graduates.
Van Vrede explained that half of this group is made up of individuals that have never worked, or had worked for at least three months and ended up being unemployed again.
It is said that thecaregivers grant beneficiaries account for 4 million of these applications, and this refers to persons that are receiving a social grant on behalf of someone else, such as a child. The government agency confirmed that caregivers do qualify to apply for the SRD grant.
As per the SRD grant requirements, permanent resident or refugee registered individuals on the Home Affairs system also qualify for the grant as long as they are residents within the borders of South Africa.
Sassa has shared that a total of 31 207 non-citizens applied for the grant, most of whom were special permit holders from Lesotho (15 802), Zimbabwe (1613) and Angola (1579), respectively.
According to South African policy, asylum seekers are not housed in camps but rather are integrated into society.
