Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu said she was meeting with her teams on Friday to discuss the issues around the payment of the R350 social relief of distress grant. The so-called Social Relief of Distress, or SRD grant, wasn’t remitted in April and May after the government changed the criteria for the payments, according to the Johannesburg-based Institute for Economic Justice.
Social relief of distress is temporary provision of assistance intended for persons in such a dire material need that they are unable to meet their families’ most basic needs.
This could be due to any of the following factors:
- you need help while you wait for your children’s grants to be processed
- a crisis or disaster has occurred (e.g. your house has burnt down)
- you do not qualify for a grant, and you are in a desperate situation
- you are unable to work for a period of less than six month because you are medically unfit
- you are unable to get maintenance from the other parent of your child or children
- the breadwinner in the family has died
- the breadwinner has been sent to prison for a short time (less than six months)
- you have been affected by a disaster, but the area or community in which you live has not been declared a disaster area.
