THE South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has had some success in dealing with the widespread illegal and unauthorised deductions from social grants, Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini has revealed.Social grant beneficiaries have complained about the deductions made for a variety of things, such as airtime, electricity and funeral policies.In a reply to a parliamentary question by DA MP Evelyn Wilson, Dlamini said that, of the 44,142 disputes received, 38,357 have been successfully resolved and blocked to not allow any further deductions from recurring. In 5,785 of these cases, beneficiaries were refunded the amounts deducted."We will continue to be vigilant in ensuring that no social grant beneficiary is financially exploited," the minister said.Government has amended the regulations to the Social Assistance Act to put an end to unauthorised and unlawful deductions, except for premiums for funeral policies which cannot exceed 10% of the grant value.Net1 Applied Te...
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