Grants grow, SRD extended and Sassa tightens checks to cut fraud

Social grants remain the single-largest item in South Africa’s social development ledger, a quiet but powerful line in the Budget that keeps millions of households afloat. Over the next three years, grant spending rises steadily, with R292.8-billion allocated in 2026/27 alone, while the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant is extended at R370 a month until March 2027. For many families, these are not abstract fiscal figures, but the difference between food in the cupboard and empty shelves.

At the same time, National Treasury is tightening the net. While grants increase modestly across categories, allocations have been trimmed over the medium term in line with lower inflation and stricter targeting. The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has intensified biometric and income verification, flagging hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries for review and cancelling tens of thousands of grants. The message from Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana is clear: support will continue, but compliance and verification will sharpen, with any future changes to the SRD grant deferred to the medium-term budget policy statement.

Excluding the social relief of distress grant, spending increases from R246.6-billion in 2025/26 to R276.5-billion in 2028/29. The social grant allocation has been adjusted down over the medium term in line with a lower inflation outlook and improved grant targeting and verification, which is expected to yield savings of R2-billion in 2026/27 and R1-billion in 2027/28.

For 2026/27, social grants are allocated R292.8-billion, enabling the following increases:

● The old age grant, disability grant and care dependency grant by R80 in April 2026, to R2,400;

● The war veterans grant by R80 to R2,420;

● The foster care grant goes up to R1,290 in April, a R40 increase and to R1,300 in October, a R10 increase; and

● The child support grant and grant-in-aid grant increase by R20 to R580.

Speaking to the media in the Q&A session ahead of his speech, Godongwana said any changes to the SRD grant would be revealed at the medium term budget policy statement later this year.

Biometric and income verification

Sassa’s allocation for 2025/26 was made conditional on the agency improving biometric and income verification processes, undertaking more frequent eligibility reviews for social grants and implementing other measures to tighten compliance.

By December 2025, the agency had checked the bank accounts of about 6 million clients and 8 million credit bureau clients. These checks flagged 291,581 grant beneficiaries for review.

As a result of the review process and strict implementation of the sliding scale, which bases grant values on recipients’ incomes, grant amounts were adjusted for 8,599 disability and old‑age grant recipients in accordance with the eligibility criteria. According to the Budget Review documents, this results in projected savings of R36.4-million in 2025/26.

A further 34,661 grants were cancelled, generating expected savings of R170.7-million by the end of 2025/26. Sassa has rolled out biometric verification for all new applicants to strengthen beneficiary authentication. DM