All beneficiaries who applied for the R350 relief grant before July 2021, must reapply
After President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the reinstatement in July of the R350 Covid-19 social relief of distress grant, first introduced last year in response to the global health pandemic, beneficiaries were told to reapply.
Social development minister Lindiwe Zulu said all applications would be treated as new ones, including those who had received the grant before, “because maybe some people may have gone and found employment since receiving the grant”.
This week, Statistics South Africa data showed the official unemployment rate rose by 0.5 percentage points in the third quarter to 34.9%, its highest level since the start of the agency’s quarterly labour force survey in 2008.
The R350 social relief grant, little though it might be, remains a lifeline for many households.
Here are the steps on how to apply for the Covid-19 relief grant.
If you have applied but do not know the outcome of your application, there are three ways to track it.
- First, you can visit the social relief distress grant page here and scroll down to Application Status. Alternatively, you can godirectly to the page to check your status by clicking here.
Make sure you have your phone number — the one you used during your application — and a valid South African identification number ready. Submit the information to receive your application status.
- You can also track your status by adding the department to your WhatApp, using this number: 082 046 8553. Send them a message saying “status”. You will be asked to supply them with your form reference number, so make sure you have it handy.
- A third option is to phone the call centre on the toll-free number: 0800-60-10-11. Or call 013-574-9428 any time from 8am to 4pm during the week.