D-Day for SASSA beneficiaries to switch to Postbank black card
Earlier this week, Postbank confirmed to have successfully migrated one point one million beneficiaries with at least one million more still needing to make the switch.
Postbank has started introducing a new Black Card for SASSA beneficiaries. Picture supplied by SASSA
JOHANNESBURG – The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) beneficiaries are racing against the clock to migrate their gold cards to the new Postbank black cards.
This comes as the old cards will officially stop working on Thursday.
Earlier this week, Postbank confirmed to have successfully migrated one point one million beneficiaries with at least one million more still needing to make the switch.
SASSA pays out 19 million grants, with 15% paid by Postbank.
In the last six months - Postbank has been fighting to move over 2.6 million SASSA grant recipients to the new cards - which was mandated by the reserve bank - due to a security breach on the SASSA gold card.
The migration process that began in September last year has seen about 46% of beneficiaries that have been moved to the new black cards
However not all SASSA recipients opted to make the switch, and the agency cited that some beneficiaries chose to move to other banks during the process
Postbank’s biggest challenge has been few staff available to service beneficiaries at sites - which the entity says it has since been able to resolve
However, the non-profit organisation (NPO), Black Sash, raised concerns over the ongoing challenges many vulnerable beneficiaries face in accessing their social grants.
The NPO cited inaccessible replacement sites, payment failures, and post office closures.
On Thursday, sites will work to move as many recipients before the cut-off time.