R350 or R370? They Are the Same SASSA Grant
If you are still searching for your “R350 status,” you are in the right place. SASSA renamed nothing and launched no new grant — the Social Relief of Distress grant simply increased in value. Here is exactly when that happened, why the old name stuck, and whether another increase is actually coming.
In This Guide
The Full Timeline: How R350 Became R370
The confusion around “R350 vs R370” makes a lot more sense once you see the grant’s full history laid out. It has never been two different grants — it is one grant that has been extended, and once increased, every single year since it launched.
The grant began in May 2020 as a short-term response to COVID-19 lockdowns, originally meant to run for six months at R350 a month. It never stopped. Unemployment stayed high enough that the government extended it in each subsequent budget, first through 2021 and 2022 at the original R350 amount. The first and, so far, only increase came in the February 2023 Budget Speech, when the Finance Minister raised the amount to R370 a month, effective 1 April 2023. Every extension since then — through 2024, 2025, and the most recent one covering April 2026 to March 2027 — has kept the amount at R370. No further increase has been announced.
That last point is worth sitting with: the R370 figure has now been unchanged for three full budget cycles. Inflation has continued moving during that time, which is a large part of why the “is R370 enough” debate, covered further down this page, keeps resurfacing every budget season.
Why People Still Call It “The R350 Grant”
Three years after the increase, “R350” is still one of the most searched SASSA terms in the country, and there are real reasons for that beyond habit.
The name stuck culturally first
The grant spent its first three years as “the R350 grant” during the period it received the most media coverage — the height of the pandemic. Names formed in that period tend to outlast the numbers behind them, the same way people still say “dial” a phone number.
Word of mouth travels slower than policy
Many applicants first heard about the grant from family or community members, often years after the increase happened, and simply repeated the amount they were told rather than the current one.
Old content is still online and still ranks
Thousands of articles, forum posts, and social media captions published between 2020 and 2023 still use “R350” in their text and headlines, and search engines keep surfacing them years later.
Whatever led you here, the answer is the same: if you applied for the SRD grant at any point since 2020 and it is still active, you are receiving R370, not R350. There is no separate “R350 grant” you need to switch out of, and no action is required on your part to move from one to the other.
Who Actually Qualifies for the R370 Grant
The amount changed in 2023, but the eligibility rules that decide who receives it have stayed largely the same since the grant launched. Four conditions apply, and all four must be met every single month the grant is paid.
Aged 18 to 59
Applicants younger than 18 or 60 and older fall outside the SRD age band and should look at the Child Support or Older Persons grants instead.
South African, Refugee, or Special Permit Holder
Eligibility extends to citizens, permanent residents, refugees, and asylum seekers, alongside certain special permit categories confirmed against Home Affairs records.
Earning R624 or Less
Total income from any source, checked monthly against SARS, UIF, and banking data. This is covered in full further down this page.
No Other Grant or UIF Payment
SRD is designed as a last-resort safety net. Receiving any other SASSA grant, or an active UIF payout, disqualifies that month automatically.
None of these four conditions changed when the amount moved from R350 to R370. The increase affected the payment only, not who is allowed to apply or how the application itself works. If you were declined under the old R350-era rules for a reason unrelated to the amount, such as a missed identity verification or an income mismatch, that same reason would still apply today.
Is There a New Increase in 2026?
Every budget season brings a fresh wave of social media posts claiming SASSA is about to jump to R400, R500, or even R700. Here is what is actually true heading into the second half of 2026.
“SASSA just announced the SRD grant is increasing to R700 next month.”
No increase of any kind was announced in the February 2026 Budget Speech. The amount was confirmed to remain R370 for the 2026/27 financial year.
“The grant is being cancelled and won’t be paid after this year.”
The 2026 Budget allocated an additional R36.4 billion specifically to keep the grant running at R370 per month through to 31 March 2027.
“You need to reapply to get the new increased amount.”
Existing approved applicants moved to R370 automatically in April 2023. No reapplication has ever been required for the amount itself to update.
“The R370 amount was only ever a temporary COVID-19 top-up and will disappear once the pandemic is officially over.”
The grant’s origin was pandemic relief, but its purpose shifted years ago to addressing structural unemployment. Government research cited in budget documents credits it with reducing hunger and poverty, which is precisely why it keeps being extended and why a permanent replacement is now in development rather than a simple shutdown.
Where These Rumours Usually Come From
Fake screenshots and cloned news headlines circulate heavily around each budget speech, often designed to drive clicks to scam sites asking for ID numbers or “processing fees.” SASSA charges nothing to check your status or receive your grant. Treat any increase announcement as false until you can confirm it directly on srd.sassa.gov.za or in an official Department of Social Development statement.
How R370 Compares to the Cost of Living
Understanding why the “when is it increasing” question keeps coming back requires looking at what R370 actually buys in 2026, next to the benchmarks economists use to measure basic survival.
The Stats SA food poverty line — the minimum amount needed to afford basic nutrition for one person, per month — sits at roughly R760 as of 2026. At R370, the SRD grant covers under half of that figure. Civil society groups, including the Universal Basic Income Coalition and the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity group, have repeatedly submitted to bodies such as the South African Human Rights Commission that the grant’s value has been outpaced by food inflation since the 2023 increase, and have called for it to at least match the food poverty line.
The government’s counter-position, reflected in successive budgets, centres on fiscal constraint: the SRD grant already represents one of the largest line items in social spending, at a cost of roughly R35–40 billion a year, within a social development budget that reached R412.2 billion in 2025/26. Treasury has consistently prioritised extending coverage to the roughly 8.5 million current beneficiaries over raising the per-person amount. Both positions are represented in ongoing public hearings and budget submissions, and neither has fully prevailed as of mid-2026.
Independent researchers add another data point to this picture. The Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity group tracks a monthly Household Affordability Index covering 44 basic food items across several provinces, and its household food basket — the amount an average family actually spends on groceries in a month — regularly runs well into the thousands of rand, several times higher than a single SRD payment. That index is not directly comparable to an individual grant amount, since it measures a household rather than one person, but researchers who present it alongside SRD figures use it to argue that the grant functions as a supplement to household income rather than something anyone is expected to survive on alone. The Department of Social Development has described the grant in similar terms, noting that recipients report using it mainly for food, electricity, and basic transport rather than as a full income replacement.
The R624 Income Threshold Explained
Separately from the R370 payment amount, SASSA uses a different figure, R624, as the income threshold for who qualifies for the SRD grant in the first place. The two numbers are easy to confuse because they are both commonly seen on SASSA-related pages, but they measure different things.
R370 — What You Receive
The actual monthly payment amount for anyone approved for the SRD grant. This is the figure that changed in April 2023.
R624 — Who Qualifies
The maximum you may earn from any source in a given month to still pass the SRD means test. Earn R624 or less and you may qualify; earn more, even by R1, and that month is declined.
SASSA reassesses the R624 threshold every single month, not just once at application. The system checks bank records, SARS data, UIF payments, and NSFAS disbursements each month, and totals all income from every source — a small stipend plus a family transfer can combine to push someone over the limit even if neither amount alone would have. A decline in one month does not carry over; SASSA reruns the full check again the following month.
The R624 figure has also become genuinely contested. In January 2025, the Pretoria High Court found several SRD regulations unconstitutional, including aspects of how the income threshold itself is applied and the requirement that applications be submitted online only. That ruling has added legal pressure on the Department of Social Development to review both the threshold and the application process, separate from the ongoing political debate over the R370 payment amount.
What Happens After March 2027?
The current extension period is the clearest deadline the SRD grant has had since it launched, and it is driving a genuine policy shift rather than another routine renewal.
The idea of a permanent income grant in South Africa is not new — it traces back to a 2002 government-commissioned inquiry that first recommended a universal income grant to tackle structural poverty, more than two decades before the SRD grant existed. What changed is that the SRD grant’s five years of operation gave policymakers a working, evaluated model to build from. Government-commissioned research has credited it with measurably reducing hunger and extreme poverty while still allowing recipients to search for work, unlike the fear that a no-strings payment would discourage job-seeking.
Policy development, through mid-2026
The Department of Social Development has been engaging with National Treasury on a proposed permanent replacement, working under names including Basic Income Support and, more recently, a “Livelihood Grant.”
Cabinet and public comment, August 2026
A draft policy is expected to go to Cabinet for approval to release for public comment, opening a window for civil society and beneficiaries to weigh in before anything is finalised.
Final approval, around March 2027
Public input is expected to shape a final version returning to Cabinet close to when the current SRD extension period ends.
Legislation, 2027/28 financial year
Any permanent grant requires amending the Social Assistance Act, a legislative process that only begins once policy is finalised — meaning SRD itself is expected to keep running under its current rules until the new law is actually in force.
The scale of the ambition is significant: current proposals discussed publicly range from simply continuing SRD-style payments at a higher, inflation-linked amount, up to expanding eligibility to as many as 18 million people, which independent costings put at roughly R80 billion a year at current values, or considerably more if the amount is raised to match the food poverty line. Whatever shape it takes, nothing changes for current SRD recipients until new legislation is actually signed into law — there is no indication the R370 grant will be altered or interrupted before then.
What This Means for You Practically
Strip away the politics and the history, and here is what actually matters if you are receiving, or applying for, the grant right now.
Nothing to Apply For, Nothing to Update
If your SRD application is currently approved, you are already receiving R370 and there is no separate form, portal, or step to move from the old amount to the new one. The change happened automatically at payment level in April 2023.
Your SASSA status check, whether through the portal, USSD, or WhatsApp, will always show your current status and payment amount, which has been R370 since the 2023 change. If you see the figure R350 referenced anywhere official-looking today, treat it as outdated content rather than a separate program — and be cautious of any site or message using the old figure to appear more current or trustworthy than it actually is. For a full walkthrough of how the status system itself works, including what each result means, see our complete guide to the SC19 status portal.
A Quick Way to Confirm You Are Getting R370
Check your bank statement or mobile money confirmation SMS for the exact deposit amount on your last payment date. If it reads R370, you are already on the current amount. If it reads anything else, contact SASSA directly on 0800 60 10 11 rather than assuming, since a mismatch is more likely to point to a payment method or banking issue than an outdated grant rate.
Taken together, the amount, the eligibility rules, and the extension timeline are three separate things that all happen to change on different schedules, which is exactly what makes this topic confusing at a glance. The amount moved once, in April 2023, and has not moved since. Eligibility has stayed constant since the grant began. The extension period is reviewed annually and currently runs to March 2027, after which a different, permanent grant is expected to take over under new legislation rather than SRD simply continuing to be renewed indefinitely.