SASSA staff shortages a major concern for department

April’s pending grant increases are welcome, but agency still hamstrung by SASSA staff shortages, worries Deputy Minister …

SASSA staff shortages severely impact the agency's ability to provide social welfare to the needy. Image: File

SASSA staff shortages persist, despite a budget increase of R8.2 billion over the medium term. Many were surprised to see South African Social Security Agency grants increase by between 5.7 and 5.9% for April 2025 after the postponed Budget Speech. In fact, the Department of Social Development (DSD) will spend R422 billion in total this year, with 80% of this expenditure going to social grants.

However, there is a growing school of thought that government is throwing good money after bad due to persistent SASSA staff shortages, and poor governance. The department acknowledges that social grant reform and improved efficiency is necessary to ensure the sustainability of the SASSA social-grant system beyond 2025.

SASSA STAFF SHORTAGES

Anyone who’s been affected by the poorly handled Postbank card migration debacle will concur. With the extended deadline looming tomorrow (Thursday 20 March 2025), only 33% of Gold-to-Black card swaps have been enacted. This has caused untold misery for elderly and disabled grant recipients who have nowhere to turn. However, government data within the DSD paints a very clear picture as to why this has happened.

The DSD continues to face severe SASSA staff shortages. And, as far as social workers go, it currently only employs 15 433 versus its target of 55 000, reports The Citizen. The worrying gap was highlighted in the department’s 2023/24 Annual Report to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) recently.

A BLOT ON SOUTH AFRICA’S DEMOCRACY

The DSD Deputy Minister, Ganief Hendricks, called social workers the ‘Cinderellas of South Africa’. “These SASSA staff shortages are a blot on our democracy, government and my department,” said Hendricks. Despite these staffing challenges, the DSD says it has achieved 77% of its targets for the 2023/24 financial year. According to Chief Director Jacques van Zuydam, the department achieved 50 out of 65 targets for the year. This includes spending 99.4% of its R260 billion budget. However, an underspend of R1.5 billion has been rolled over to the current financial year. It’s understood that this underspend is mainly attributed to the SASSA child support grant and extended Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant.

Likewise, there’s on-going concern within the department about fraud. And the Deputy Minister believes stronger penalties are needed. “DSD and SASSA sees quite a number of fraud offences committed. So we will have to relook at the disciplinary procedures. Because it appears the penalties are not severe enough. We simply cannot allow our officials to steal from the state, or the public to steal from the state,” concluded Hendricks.