• SASSA says that over half a million grant recipients were affected by a systems glitch in its grant withdrawal system last week.
• Mostly elderly and disabled beneficiaries were unable to withdraw their grants due to an error caused by a systems upgrade that the Postbank was rolling out.
• Around 500 000 of those affected by the IT challenges have received their grants, but many are yet to be paid.

Last week, a “technical issue” at the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) stopped a portion of its grant beneficiaries from being able to withdraw their social grants from ATMs and retailers using their gold SASSA cards.

For two days, Tuesday and Wednesday 5th and 6th September Postbank, distributor of SASSA grants, experienced “intermittent system challenges” at ATMs and retailers, leading to failed withdrawal attempts by grant recipients for the old age and disabilities grants.

The glitch was fixed quickly and now government has seen fit to explain what exactly went wrong. According to a press statement from the Department of Social Development, these challenges or technical glitches were attributed to a “systems upgrade” at Postbank.

Many beneficiaries received “transaction incomplete” errors thanks to the upgrade because of system communication timeouts – basically, the withdrawal information being sent to the Postbank was not received and thus the connection was automatically disconnected after a certain amount of time.

The department says that the system upgrade impacted the auto reversal functionality that usually sets in when a “transaction incomplete” error is received.

“More than 4 million individuals were paid their social grants money by Postbank through the SASSA Gold Cards on 7th and 8th September 2023,” explains the department.

“However, there might be few beneficiaries who have not yet received their social grants. Unfortunately, though, due to the automated reversal not working on the 5th and 6th, a number of clients, mainly the elderly, were unable to access their funds for a prolonged period of time.”

Approximately 600 000 beneficiaries were affected by this issue, mostly elderly people and the disabled.

“We would like to confirm to South Africa that the majority of these accounts have now been corrected and clients have been able to access their money. Postbank has completed more than 500 000 funds reversals to date,” the department adds.

However, this means that around 100 000 beneficiaries that are paid via their gold SASSA cards are yet to receive their grants as of 15th September 2023.

Meanwhile, the Postbank has apparently made “tremendous progress” towards finishing the IT systems upgrade to its operations.

“This development will also ensure that system challenges of this nature are a thing of the past. Government remains committed to establishing the Postbank as a developmental State Bank,” it adds.

Finally, the department says it is aware of some fraudulent attempts to steal money from the system being committed by individuals who would have received their funds trying to get double payment.

The department assures that social grant beneficiaries will receive their social grants if they have not been paid yet. It encourages beneficiaries still encountering challenges to contact the Postbank call centre on 0800 53 54 55, or send a WhatsApp to 073 806 1631.

Alternatively, you can email PBbalancingSaswitch@postbank.co.za.