The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) will disburse the first social grants of 2026 to beneficiaries next week.
The agency administers more than 19 million grant payments, including the Older Persons’ Pension Grant, Disability Grant, War Veterans Grant, Care Dependency Grant, Foster Child Grant, Child Support Grant, Child Support Grant Top-Up, and Grant-in-Aid.
January 2026 grant payments
Sassa grant payment dates:
- Older Persons Grant – Tuesday, 6 January 2025
- Disability Grant – Wednesday, 7 January 2025
- Children’s Grants – Thursday, 8 January 2025
Sassa grant amounts:
- Old Age Grant (60–74 years) and Disability Grant – R2 315
- Old Age Grant (75+ years) – R2 335
- War Veterans Grant – R2 315
- Care Dependency Grant – R2 315
- Child Support Grant – R560
- Foster Care Grant – R1 250
- SRD Grant – R370
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Gauteng social development criticised for R100m underspending
The Gauteng Department of Social Development has come under criticism after failing to spend more than R100 million during the 2024–25 financial year.
According to the department’s annual report, R102.9 million of its allocated budget remained unspent. The reasons for the underspending were not explained in the report.
This comes amid growing social challenges in the province. Statistics South Africa data and the General Household Survey of 2020–2021 indicate that Gauteng had 154 000 orphans between the ages of 0 and 17, representing a 1.7% increase from the 78 000 recorded in the previous financial year.
Leadership and planning failures blamed
Wayne Duvenage, CEO of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), said departments that fail to spend their budgets either lack proper planning or are not functioning effectively.
“It is a political leadership issue which needs an intervention. If the premier is not going to take action and fire or hold his leadership to account, then the president/Cabinet and/or parliament should start holding Panyaza Lesufi and his MECs to account.
“Quite frankly, when it comes to the next elections, it is up to the electorate to hold the Gauteng political leadership to account – by voting them out of office.”
Duvenage added that political change was necessary in municipalities and provinces that consistently failed to deliver on their mandates.
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Opposition highlights repeat failures
Democratic Alliance member of the Gauteng provincial legislature, Refiloe Nt’sekhe, said the underspending reflected a recurring problem rather than an isolated incident.
“Yet again, the department has failed its constitutional mandate, continues to miss targets and again leaves millions unspent while the most vulnerable suffer.
“This is more than financial failure. It is an ethical failure. A failure of leadership. Despite commitments to expand disability services, the department once again failed to meet targets for residential and community-based support. Underspending and administrative weaknesses continue to undermine the rights of persons with disabilities,” Nt’sekhe said.
She also pointed out that the department failed to meet its target of employing 2% persons with disabilities and did not achieve its goals for empowering businesses owned by people with disabilities.
“This illustrates how persons with disabilities continue to be excluded from the economy. This is a disgrace.”
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