Beneficiaries who receive the R350 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant that have been informed that their grant has a “referred” status, means the application is suspected to be fraudulent.

South African Social Relief Agency (SASSA) spokesperson Paseka Lesatsi says what this means is that the application has been approved, however SASSA needs to verify the identity of the applicant within a period of five days to prevent any possible fraud.

Lesatsi explains that the agency has seen cases where people steal phones to apply for the SRD grant on behalf of another person without their consent, and in some cases where the applicant doesn’t meet the criteria for the grant.

SASSA makes uses of biometric systems to verify the identity of applicants with a “referred” status.