Cape Town – The Western Cape has the highest number of temporary disability grants that lapsed between April 2022 and February this year.
According to Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu, a total of 232 505 temporary disability grants lapsed during the period countrywide.
The Western Cape is leading the pack with 55 128 lapsed temporary disability grants, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 41 759, Gauteng 34 151, Limpopo 22 762, Northern Cape 21 760, Free State 17 789, Mpumalanga 14 292, North West 13 166 and Eastern Cape 11 704.
Zulu revealed this when DA MP Alexandra Abrahams enquired about the temporary disability grant backlog, which is an ongoing crisis due to the lack of SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) assessment doctors.
In her written response, Zulu said the total assessment 30-day backlog picture, inclusive of all the provinces, stood at 2 818 as of March 2023.
Zulu’s response showed that Western Cape had 1 693 assessment backlogs and the other provinces shared the balance.
However, there were a total of 34 428 clients waiting for assessment.
The minister said Sassa has contracted 315 doctors for a period of three years as service providers to conduct assessments.
“It should be noted that for the Western Cape region, assessments are largely conducted through service level agreements held with the district health -care system.
“In the Western Cape, tertiary, secondary and district hospitals also undertake assessments to in-patients clients deemed to be meeting the eligibility criteria prior to their discharge,” she said.
The breakdown of the assessment doctors indicate that KZN has the highest number at 74, followed by Gauteng and Limpopo at 49 each, Free State 32, Eastern Cape 30, Northern Cape 26, Mpumalanga 25, North West 19 and Western Cape 11.
Zulu said a total of 3 502 appointments were made through the online platform from April 2022 until February 2023.
She also said all doctors have been paid to date for claims submitted.
“Doctors are contracted and remunerated per assessment and not per hour,” the minister said.
The amount paid as at March stood at R118 613 955.03.
However, there were services rendered that were not invoiced by some of the doctors
Pending invoices include:
Gauteng – R601 854.96.
Mpumalanga R401 293.
Western Cape R183 849.30.
In a statement, Abrahams noted with concern Western Cape has the highest assessment backlog yet the number of doctors contracted by Sassa and the department remained inadequate.
“Given that 232 505 of these grants lapsed between April 2022 and February 2023, it is high time that Sassa made work of the 34 428 assessments that need to be completed.
“While Sassa’s strategies to eradicate the backlog seemed to be bearing some fruit, it will be of little comfort to the thousands of disabled people across the country that haven’t received their grants,” Abrahams said.
“The DA will submit further parliamentary questions to determine the successful recruitment of assessment doctors in the Western Cape,” Abrahams said.
Cape Times