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Post Office officials welcome new system of paying grants

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The majority of social grant recipients had already been paid their grants by midday on Wednesday and by early afternoon the chairs in the Upington post office were empty.

POST Office officials in Upington have welcomed the new system implemented by the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) with regards to the payment of social grants during the national lockdown and have requested that it be maintained in the future.

The majority of social grant recipients had already been paid their grants by midday on Wednesday and by early afternoon the chairs in the Upington post office were empty.

As a means to curb the spread of the coronavirus and to flatten the curve, Sassa indicated that social grant payments would be split during the lockdown.

Old age grant recipients were paid on March 30 and 31, while children’s grants were paid out on April 1.

Post Office staff said that the new regulations had assisted them greatly in managing the influx of grant recipients.

“This new system of payments has worked very well. We are able to assist people speedily and do not have an overflow of recipients in the post office at one time. This new way is also more beneficial for the elderly as we could focus on them and then turn our attention to the payment of the child grants. In the past, the facility was filled with older persons and youngsters all at the same time. The young people did not want to allow the elderly to be helped first and, as a result, many old people had to queue for hours.”

They added that the new system was far quicker.

“We knew that our focus for the day would either only be the elderly or the child grant payments. We were able to process payments much quicker.”

They said that although the new regulations had come during a tough time, it had eliminated some major challenges.

“This coronavirus is very dangerous and we need to take precautions. However, it has also pushed us to think of innovative ways of giving better and faster services to our people.”

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