SASSA Asylum Seekers and Special Permit Holders
As I talked enough about SASSA from different angles, Asylum seekers or special permit holders in South Africa should also be highlighted.
You may not be aware of this, but SASSA with its national people also takes care of Asylum or special holders present in South Africa by fulfilling their money-related needs.
It’s a fact Asylum Seekers and Special permit holder may also have their own challenges in a new country, so if you’re one going through hardships, no problem, SASSA has got the solution for you.
You can use the SASSA online application facility to apply for a grant if you fulfill the eligibility criteria I’ll discuss here later.
To give you an overview for the criteria, if you’re one receiving not any benefits from the government or any private organization, you can be eligible for a SASSA grant, but some other conditions should also be fulfilled.
Eligibility Criteria for Asylum Seekers and Special Permit Holders
If you’re Asylum or SPH, you must be fulfilling these eligibility criteria specifically designed for you by SASSA, if a single point missing from these can cause rejection in your application.
If you experience rejection, you can use SASSA appeal with more evidence or fulfill the eligibility criteria presented to SASSA, Let’s look at what the criteria points are for an applicant.
Asylum Seeker
- Only a registered Asylum Seeker and Permit Holder in the file of the South African government is eligible for an SASSA grant.
- The applicant or you must not have been involved in any illegal activity in the past.
- You must be between the age of 18-60 years, not more not less.
- The applicant should receive any monetary benefit from any organization except the SASSA child support grant.
- You must not be receiving any salary from any company, but if you’re receiving it shouldn’t be enough to live a good living (must be proved through proper documentation or reports)
- .Applicant should be present within the country.
- Should have no valuable assets.
Special Permit Holders
- The applicant should have a valid permit to live in the country (Should be provided upon requirement).
- Must be between 18-60 of age.
- Own no assets or any healthy income.
- No criminal record.
- No other benefit from any organization except a Child support grant.
In short, both these categories have the same criteria to be eligible for receiving SASSA benefits.
How to Apply
The process for application is the same as you apply for other grants, just the difference is only in providing additional documents as proof.
- First get yourself registered with SASSA at (https://sassa.gov.za/) by creating an account using your email ID, ID provided by the South African government, and phone number.
- Confirm your account by the confirmation message you receive on your email or Phone number.
- Login to your account and then see ‘Apply for a grant’ button in your account, press it.
- Look for the application form and download it.
- Download the bank consent form.
- Download the affidavit form.
- Only download relate forms to the grant you want to apply for.
- Fill these forms 100% correctly with no mistakes and upload them again to your account.
- Now arrange your complete Asylum seekers or special permit documents and upload them too in your account.
- Now submit all these documents and forms to SASSA within your portal.
- After completing the submission, you can use the SASSA status check to see your current application status, you can also use this to even track your appeal.
Important: you must have a valid and active bank account first before filling out the bank consent form, and your account must be only with the bank that SASSA accepts.
Precautions
- Apply for a grant only at the official SASSA site (sassa.gov.za).
- Avoid hiring any agent for this purpose, research and do it yourself.
- Only allow your close family member to access your SASSA account.
- Share your grant account details with anyone else.
- After application approval, receive your money from payment points yourself.
- If you don’t get any response from SASSA within the next 2 weeks of applying, try not to over-apply, wait for more days, or contact SASSA (0800 60 10 11).
- Regularly renew your grant application.
- Keep an eye on transactional notifications on your phone.
FAQs
Can an Asylum Seeker or Special Permit Holder get any grant from SASSA?
Yes, only if you successfully meet the eligibility criteria.
For how much time the grant will be valid for AS or SPH?
The grant will work the same way as for other national citizens of South Africa, each grant has its validity you have to check.