BUDGET 2026 | 300,000 grant recipients flagged for possible fraud

More than 291,000 social grant beneficiaries have been flagged for benefit reviews as government moves to clamp down on fraud and corruption in its social security net. This is according to budget documents presented to parliament on Wednesday by finance minister Enoch Godongwana and the National Treasury. Godongwana told MPs that the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) would in the coming financial year intensify measures “to combat fraud and corruption while ensuring that legitimate beneficiaries are protected.” Government’s social development programme has been allocated R448bn for the coming financial year, with the bulk of it going to social grants.

“Sassa’s allocation for 2025/26 was made conditional on the agency improving biometric and income verification processes, undertaking more frequent eligibility reviews for social grants and implementing other measures to tighten compliance. “By December 2025, the agency had checked the bank statements of about 6-million clients and 8-million credit bureau clients. These checks flagged 291,581 grant beneficiaries for review.

Government proposes to increase excise duties on alcoholic beverages in line with the inflation forecast of 3.4% for 2026/27. Stakeholder consultations on the alcohol excise review will continue during 2026. “As a result of the review process and strict implementation of the sliding scale, which bases grant values on recipients’ income, grant amounts were adjusted for 8,599 disability and old-age grants in accordance with eligibility criteria.

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“This results in a projected saving of R36.4m in 2025/26. A further 34,661 grants were cancelled, generating expected savings of R170.7m by the end of the 2025/26 financial year.” Godongwana has allocated inflation-linked increases to various forms of social grants: There isno increase in the controversial social relief of distress (SRD) grant, which was introduced at the height of the Covid-19 lockdown to cushion the unemployed from its economic impact. “The SRD grant is allocated an additional R36.4bn to extend payments until March 31 2027 at the current level of R370 per month per beneficiary. The social grant allocation has been adjusted down over the medium term in line with a lower inflation outlook and improved grant targeting and verification, which is expected to yield savings of R2bn in 2026/27 and R1bn in 2027/28.”

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