Cheating the SASSA Grant System: How They Did It
Unveiling the SASSA Grant CheatingGame
Let me share a surprising story about cheating the SASSA grant system that left me astounded.
SASSA manages different grants for people, including locals, foreigners, and refugees.
There are nine types of grants, such as the Care Dependency Grant, Child Support Grant, and more.
namely;
- Disability grant
- Grant for older persons
- War veteran’s grant
- Foster child grant
- Care dependency grant
- Child support grant + child support grant Top-Up
- Grant-in-Aid.
Lastly, there’s also the R350 Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant. which you can apply for here online as long as you don’t receive any other form of grant.
Or, if you’ve already applied, you can click the following link to do your 350 grant status check.
Understanding the Child Support and Foster Child Grants
To understand how cheating the SASSA grant system works, let’s focus on how the Child Support Grant (R480 + R240 CSG) in conjunction with the Foster Child Grant (R1 050).
And how this enables six non-citizen adults and four children to draw a combined grant payments totaling R38 520.00 each month.
I recently heard of a situation where someone was approached for help to submit his SASSA grant application and paperwork for his wife to claim SASSA benefits.
This person has two wives.
One lives with him, and the other resides in town.
He has a child with each wife, but he’s not legally married to either.
His brother, who also lives nearby, has a wife back in Zimbabwe.
The surprising twist?
His wife from Zimbabwe came to South Africa specifically to give birth, aiming to access SASSA grants.
These babies are known as “anchor babies.”
But wait, there’s another ‘brother’ in the mix with a wife and child, making a total of six adults and four children.
Cracking the SASSA Grant Payments Code
To tap into the system, he provided a link to a form on SASSA’s website.
After printing it out and filling it in, it was discovered that up to six people can apply for a Foster Child Grant for one child.
This raised questions.
For instance, how can six people claim a care grant for one child?
Easy Access to Grants
Surprisingly, the requirements for these grants are quite easy to get past.
No need for ID, birth certificate, or passport.
Just fill in the form and get it signed by a pastor.
Some ‘pastors’ are willing to sign for a fee.
Each adult applies for a child grant and a care grant, totaling a significant amount monthly.
And the adults can qualify for the grant just for looking after the child.
There’s another astonishingly easy requirement to get the child care grant.
As the adult looking after the child, you only need to care for it for more than three days in a month.
How easy is that?
Cheating the System
So back to how these ‘beneficiaries’ cheat the system.
Each adult applies for a R720.00 child grant for each child, claiming to be single and unemployed.
Each adult claims a R1050.00 care grant, stating they are unemployed and caring for the children at least three days of the month. (6 x R720.00) + (24 x R1050) = R29 520.00
It’s as easy as that and all these individuals have to do is work together to manipulate the system, claiming benefits for themselves and their children.
The process involves asserting singlehood, unemployment, and caring for children for at least three days a month.
They even exploit disability grants by claiming illnesses like HIV/AIDS or TB.
By doing that each person collects R1500 (Totaling: R9000 per month) for being ‘disabled’ according to SASSA’s criteria for a disability grant.
But surely you have to prove that you have HIV or TB?
Yes you do, but getting
diagnosed with HIV or TB at a local satellite clinic will only cost a small R200 bribe from a corrupt official.
Please note that not all clinic employees, doctors or staff are corrupt. The same goes for SASSA employess.
Unveiling the Reality of the Grant Payment System
Now, I understand how these poor beneficiaries afford fancy things—expensive branded shoes & clothes, the latest cellphones, and more.
It’s a coordinated effort to exploit the system and claim grants they may not truly qualify for.
The revelation is eye-opening, and now you know the inside story.
In a nutshell, there’s a game being played with SASSA grants, and it involves collaboration, loopholes, and a strategic approach to benefit from the system.
Conclusion: Original Article on Gaming SASSA's System
While the original article by Gaynor Ungerer has since been refuted as not factual, it is clear that people are cheating the SASSA grant system to get grant payments that are unlawful.
In fact SASSA’s own employees have been known to scam the system for millions.
- For instance this report shows how 11 SASSA admin clerks were arrested for stealing grant money by registering for fake disability benefits.
(Ref: https://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/news/sassa-records-701-fraud-cases-by-officials-worth-r50m-4e7945fe-5132-4673-acde-5d9170d93af5) - 40 SASSA officials were investigated and 701 cases of fraud opened involving around R50 million.
(Ref: https://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/news/sassa-records-701-fraud-cases-by-officials-worth-r50m-4e7945fe-5132-4673-acde-5d9170d93af5) - In another one, a Limpopo woman got 15 people to lie about living with disabilities to get social grant payments.This was just part of a group who ran a scams netting R300,000.(Ref: https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2023-04-06-limpopo-woman-had-people-pretend-to-be-disabled-in-r300k-sassa-scam/)