Postbank New SASSA Card

THE SA Post Office and the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) launched a new card for Sassa beneficiaries on May 3, with Postbank as the issuing bank.

The card is already available at selected Post Office branches and a process to swop the old CPS-Grindrod Sassa card for the new Sassa-Postbank card will start in the middle of this month.

The new card allows for free services every month, such as three cash withdrawals at merchants, retailers, Point of Sale (POS) devices, unlimited POS purchases, one cash withdrawal at a Post Office branch, one balance inquiry at an ATM, one mini statement per month drawn from ATM, one PIN reset at a Sapo branch, unlimited PIN resets at Sassa offices, and the first card and one card replacement is free.

No EFT debits or stop orders are available on the new card. This means that there can be no illegal deductions from the new Sassa card.

All commercial bank accounts incur bank costs. The Sassa card does not attract any charges.

Post Office chief operations officer Lindiwe Kwele said beneficiaries should consider moving from cash payments to a bank account as a beneficiary with cash runs a very real risk of being mugged.

While the validity of the current cards was extended to December 2018, the intention is to migrate the current beneficiaries to the new Sapo/Postbank solution and cards by the end of September 2018.

Johan Kruger of the communications division at the SA Post Office, said that in December 2017, the Post Office reached an agreement with Sassa to provide a special disbursement account with a bouquet of free services to social grants beneficiaries using electronic payment services offered by Post Bank.

“This agreement will help in improving Sassa services,” he said.

Kruger said there will be “no unauthorised deductions” on the new Sassa card.

However, the card will allow for a funeral policy deduction of 10% of the grant amount.

“Sassa is now paying funeral policy deductions directly on behalf of beneficiaries.

“The old Sassa card expires at the end of 2018, but this will not affect continuous grant payments and beneficiaries need not panic,” Kruger said.

The new Sassa card will be issued at Sassa or Sapo offices or identified service points.

Existing beneficiaries will swap their old cards for the new one from May 2 until the end of September.

Beneficiaries who may wish to exchange their old cards are advised to go to their local Post Office or Sassa branch with their Sassa card and identity document.

Beneficiaries can have their social grants paid straight into their personal bank account. Grant beneficiaries must obtain an Annexure C and request a bank payment form from Sassa, and get it completed by either the SA Post Office outlet or their bank of choice.

The Post Office or bank must stamp the form.

They must then submit the completed Sassa form to their nearest Sassa office.

For any other information, phone Sassa at 0800 60 10 11

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