Caregiver shares struggles of SASSA old-age pensioners

A caregiver for South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) old-age pensioners has written in to share some of the clearest insights yet into what life looks like for an elderly grant recipient. Ria Sehannie, who works as a carer for elderly beneficiaries, contacted The South African. And she had the following insights to share:

“I have seen so many SASSA old-age pensioners struggling when they clearly need help. But they can’t even get food for the month, because their rent is taking up all their SASSA grant. Then they have to beg or pick up scraps of food from the church. It’s really not nice for them,” she shared.

STRUGGLES OF SASSA OLD-AGE PENSIONERS

Tellingly, that’s not coming from some agency report delivered in Parliament. That’s from someone watching it happen, repeatedly, in real time. Worse still, the Older Person’s Grant currently sits at a miserly R2 400 a month (60 to 74) and R2 420 (75 and older). And by all accounts the agency has shown no evidence they will increase it in October 2026.

Ria’s account shows exactly how a SASSA old-age pensioners money goes out before it can go anywhere else. Rent is paid first, whatever’s left, if anything, goes to food. As a result, there’s simply nothing left for things like medication and other basics most of us take for granted. For elderly South Africans who spent a lifetime working, paying tax into the system, and raising children, that’s genuinely hard to reconcile.

R5 000 GRANT FOR SASSA OLD-AGE PENSIONERS

Therefore, Ria’s ask is direct and specific. First, raise the amount for SASSA Old-Age Pensioners to R5 000 a month. Second, cap what a pensioner can legally be charged by a landlord for rent to R1 500. Of course, whether either idea is fiscally realistic in today’s economy is a separate conversation entirely. Nevertheless, it’s a genuinely fresh angle from someone with a telling vantage point.

Worse still, every year for the past two years, SASSA has delivered pensioners a small October top-up increase. These amounted to R10 in both October 2024 and October 2025. It wasn’t much, but it was something and showed, perhaps, that government cared.

However, this year, it appears the pattern will be broken. As things stand at the time of publishing, there are no confirmed top-ups for Older Person’s Grants. For someone like Ria, watching the gap between rent and grocery money widen every month for the elderly, it’s becoming harder to watch …

But what do you think? Do you agree with Ria’s views on SASSA Old-Age Pensioners? Should government be doing more? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below …