DIGITAL DIVIDE WIDENS AS SRD GRANT RECIPIENTS STRUGGLE WITH BIOMETRIC VERIFICATION

Thu 01 August 2024:

South Africa – The changes made to the Social Relief Distress (SRD) grant by the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) have raised various citizen concerns. Although designed to combat fraud, these new measures have inadvertently created obstacles for many grant recipients.

The biometric system, which requires access to smartphones and the internet, has made it difficult for people to access the financial grants they desperately need.

General Alfred Moyo from Pay the Grant explained that people learned of this new verification process only after the June pay dates. As a result, they found themselves in a “referred” status without prior notification or explanation from SASSA.

To receive their grant, recipients must complete the biometric verification, a process many cannot undertake due to the lack of smartphones, internet access, and overall digital literacy.

“The process is very dividing in the sense that it’s a digital divide that we are starting to see in these poor, vulnerable communities. Those who cannot go through the digital processes and understand the step-by-step verification process required by SASSA, face a very serious challenge.”

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Is the New SRD Process Widening the Digital Divide?

Moyo stated that SASSA’s sudden imposition of these changes without prior notice or consultation has left many people without their June payments. SASSA’s lack of communication significantly contributes to the difficulties people are currently facing.

“The challenge with SASSA is that it doesn’t engage. It pushes through all these new regulations, promulgating them overnight without any notification or consultations. So it’s very difficult to get clear clarity from their side because, as you rightfully indicated, they allege that this is to prevent fraudulent activities with no substantiated evidence of such activities.”

Moyo further alleges that these measures are another way to exclude society’s most vulnerable from receiving support. He argues that the lack of consultation and transparency in implementing these changes indicates a broader strategy of systematically reducing the number of beneficiaries.

By insisting on the biometric verification system, which ostensibly aims to prevent fraud, the system ultimately marginalises those who are already struggling.

Therefore, Moyo calls for a universal basic income guarantee as a more inclusive and effective solution. This would mitigate the ever-growing digital divide and ensure eligible citizens receive their grants promptly.

“It will be a smooth process that might not be as cost-effective as those other systems they are trying to put in place. Those systems will not leave anyone behind and will not have any of the digital divide that we are seeing currently, which will widen the inequality gap. It will push through the country’s skyrocketing poverty, inequality, and starvation.”

written by Thaabit Kamaar