Grant rules, amounts and payment dates change every year, and 2026 has brought a few real shifts: an increase to most grants from April, a fourth SASSA payment day for people flagged for review, and tighter monthly verification on the SRD R370. This guide pulls all of that together in one place, with the current numbers and the exact steps to apply, check your status, or appeal a decline.

Last updated: August 2026. Grant amounts and payment dates are confirmed by SASSA and the Department of Social Development; always double-check specifics for your own case on sassa.gov.za or srd.sassa.gov.za before you rely on them.

SASSA Grant Amounts 2026/2027

Grant increases follow a fixed process: the Minister of Finance announces adjustments in the annual Budget Speech, National Treasury signs off, and SASSA implements the new amounts from 1 April. For the 2026/2027 financial year, seven of the eight grant types went up; the SRD R370 was left unchanged.

Grant	Monthly Amount (from Apr 2026)	Who It’s For
Older Persons Grant (60–74)	R2,400	SA citizens/permanent residents aged 60+
Older Persons Grant (75+)	R2,420	Same as above, aged 75 and older
Disability Grant	R2,400	Ages 18–59 with a medically confirmed disability
Care Dependency Grant	R2,400	Caregivers of children with severe disabilities
War Veterans Grant	R2,420	Qualifying war veterans
Foster Child Grant	R1,290 (→ R1,300 from Oct 2026)	Court-appointed foster parents
Child Support Grant	R580	Primary caregivers of children under 18
Grant-in-Aid	R580	Top-up for beneficiaries who need full-time care
SRD R370 (Social Relief of Distress)	R370 (unchanged)	Unemployed adults 18–59 with no other income

For a full breakdown of who qualifies for each category, see our guide to the different types of SASSA grants, or run your numbers through the SASSA means test calculator before you apply.

SASSA Payment Dates: August 2026

SASSA pays the three main grant categories over the first week of the month, plus a fourth day set aside for anyone flagged for a review. For August 2026, the confirmed dates are:

If your grant isn’t paid on your usual date and instead lands on the fourth day, that’s SASSA’s way of telling you your file has been selected for a review — not that anything is wrong with your grant. You’ll need to visit your nearest SASSA office before the 18th of the following month with proof of income, proof of marital status and any other requested documents to confirm you still qualify.

How the monthly schedule generally works

The pattern repeats every month, though the exact calendar dates shift: Older Persons Grants are usually paid first (typically around the 2nd working day of the month), Disability Grants follow a day later, and Child Support, Foster Child and Care Dependency Grants come after that. If a payment date falls on a weekend or public holiday, SASSA moves it earlier, not later, so you’re never paid late because of the calendar.

You don’t need to rush to withdraw your grant on the day it lands — the money stays in your account (or on your card) until you collect it. That said, a grant left uncollected for three consecutive months can be flagged and suspended, so it’s worth checking in even in a quiet month.

The SRD R370 runs on a separate schedule entirely. It’s paid in individual batches during the final week of the month, and your specific date depends on when your monthly means-test verification cleared — not on a fixed calendar day. Check your own date at Check Your SASSA SRD R370 Grant Balance, and see How to Check Your SASSA Grant Status for the other grant categories.

SRD R370 Grant: The Full 2026 Picture

The Social Relief of Distress grant started in May 2020 as a R350 COVID-19 relief measure, moved up to R370 in April 2024, and has stayed at that amount ever since — the 2026 Budget kept it frozen while committing a dedicated allocation to keep it running through 31 March 2027. There’s ongoing public debate about eventually folding the SRD into a broader “livelihoods” or basic-income-style grant tied to job-seeking activity, but nothing like that has been implemented yet — for now, the R370 is the grant that exists.

Who qualifies for the SRD R370

• South African citizen, permanent resident, or recognised refugee
• Aged 18 to 59
• Currently unemployed, with no salary or other regular income
• Not already receiving another SASSA grant, UIF payments, NSFAS funding, or a government stipend/learnership
• Living inside South Africa and not in a state institution

Eligibility is checked fresh every single month, automatically, against SARS, UIF, NSFAS, Home Affairs and bank deposit data. Being approved in July doesn’t guarantee approval in August — a new deposit, a short-term job, or a change in your details can flip your status. The income threshold sits at roughly R624 in bank deposits per month from any source (some SASSA-adjacent sites cite it slightly higher, around R628, so treat this as an estimate and confirm the exact current figure on the SRD portal before assuming you’re over or under it).

The SRD application itself is entirely online — you don’t need to visit an office to apply. Full step-by-step instructions, including the WhatsApp and USSD routes if you’re short on data, are covered in our SRD R370 application guide and applying via WhatsApp. If you’ve applied before and your circumstances have changed, see SRD reapplication, and if the standard route isn’t working for you, we’ve listed alternative ways to apply. For the background on how the grant works month to month, read our full Social Relief of Distress (SRD) Grant overview.

How to Apply for the Permanent SASSA Grants

Unlike the SRD, the permanent grants — Older Persons, Disability, Child Support, Foster Child, Care Dependency, War Veterans and Grant-in-Aid — require an in-person application at your nearest SASSA local office. You’ll need your ID document or smart ID card, proof of income (or a sworn statement if you have none), your bank account details, and any documents specific to the grant you’re applying for.

• Apply for the SASSA Old Age Pension
• Apply for the SASSA Disability Grant — requires a medical assessment by a SASSA-appointed doctor
• Apply for the SASSA Child Support Grant
• Apply for the SASSA Foster Child Grant — requires a valid court order
• SASSA Care Dependency Grant
• Apply for the SASSA War Veteran’s Grant
• Apply for SASSA Grant-in-Aid — paid on top of another grant when full-time care is needed

Not sure exactly what paperwork to bring? Our required documents checklist covers each grant type so you don’t make a wasted trip to the office.

Grant Reviews and eLife Certification

SASSA runs periodic reviews and “eLife Certification” checks under the Social Assistance Act to confirm a beneficiary is still alive, still eligible, and still living in South Africa — this is what protects the system from paying out to deceased beneficiaries or people who no longer qualify. If you’re selected, you’ll usually notice it as a payment landing on the fourth payment day instead of your normal date, sometimes backed up by an SMS.

The single biggest cause of missed review notices is outdated contact details — SASSA sends communication to whatever cellphone number and address were captured when you first applied, so if you’ve moved or changed your number since, update it as soon as possible. See how to change your SASSA phone number, and if it’s your banking details that need updating, use this guide to changing your SRD banking details.

How to Check Your SASSA or SRD Status

For the SRD R370, you have four free options:

Your result will show as Pending (still being processed), Approved (with a pay date to follow), Declined (with a reason listed), or Referred (SASSA needs more verification from a third-party database). For the permanent grants, the process is a little different — see our full SASSA grant status guide, and if you’d rather check from an app, the Moya App SRD status check is a zero-data option worth knowing about.

Declined? How to Request a Reconsideration or Appeal

If your SRD status shows Declined and you believe it’s wrong, don’t reapply straight away — that can cause conflicts in the system. Instead, work through it in order:

1. Request a reconsideration directly on the SRD portal for that specific month. This is reviewed by SASSA itself and generally takes a few weeks.
2. If the reconsideration is also rejected, lodge a formal appeal with the Independent Tribunal for Social Assistance Appeals (ITSAA) — an independent body separate from SASSA. ITSAA typically takes 60–90 days to decide.

You have 90 days from the date of the decline to act, though it’s safer to submit as soon as you see the Declined status rather than waiting. Each month has to be appealed separately — if you were declined for three different months, that’s three separate submissions, not one.

Common reasons applications get declined include exceeding the means-test income threshold, a mismatch between your details and Home Affairs’ records, an undeclared deposit picked up in the bank sweep, or a duplicate application under the same ID. Our appeal walkthrough covers the process step by step, and if you’re dealing with a specific error message, SASSA SRD Status Declined and troubleshooting your SRD grant issues break down what each one means.

SASSA Policy Changes to Know About in 2026

• Stricter, automated monthly verification. Every payment cycle, SASSA now runs a live check against SARS income records, UIF, NSFAS, Home Affairs and credit bureau data — not just a one-time check at application.
• A wider fraud and compliance drive. Tens of thousands of irregular grants were suspended earlier in 2026 as SASSA tightened eligibility checks under National Treasury oversight.
• The fourth payment day for reviews and eLife Certification is now a permanent feature of the monthly cycle, not a one-off.
• Keeping your details current matters more than ever. An outdated phone number or address is one of the most common reasons beneficiaries miss a review notice and end up with a suspended grant.

Frequently Asked Questions

For more questions we haven’t covered here, see our full FAQs About SASSA Grants page.