Foster Child Grant Update: Foster parents are paid a grant of R1,250 per month by the Department of Social Development. The purpose of this money is to provide foster parents with financial support to ensure that the child receives proper care. Foster children are children who require care and may be orphaned, abused, neglected, or otherwise vulnerable.
Who Qualifies for This Grant?
The following are prerequisites to acquire this grant:
- A South African citizen, permanent resident, or recognized refugee.
- Have foster child placed with applicant and live in South Africa.
- Have such child legally placed in your care through a legal process.
- Have such child below 18 years of age.
- If the recipient is established as eligible, then the grant is paid to assist the payment of essential expenditures.
Ways the Grant Can Be Received
The monthly allowance of R1,250 can be paid to:
- The person entitled gets cash at specified pay points on given days,
- Deposit into the entitled person’s bank account (this may incur service fees),
- Through a welfare institution designated to make disbursements.
- You may appoint a procurator to collect the money on your behalf if you cannot go to collect the money yourself, or you can give one person power of attorney to collect on your behalf.
Grant Reviews and Ongoing Requirements
Foster Child Grant is reviewed every two years, the review timing coinciding with the expiry of the original court order. The grant holder is notified well in advance, about three months prior to the review date. The following keeps one eligible:
- Registration must be done each year or as required at a local SASSA office.
- Life certificates must be submitted if payouts are made via a bank, institution, or proxy that the person is still alive, or that the grant recipient legitimately gets the grant.
When could the grant be suspended or lapse?
Your grant has the possibility the moment you fail to comply with the following:
- Not attend a scheduled review for your grant,
- Changes occurring to the grant or non-compliance,
- Misrepresenting or defrauding in your application.
- It will lapse when:
- The foster child dies or is no longer in your care,
- A foster parent dies,The child is incorporated into a state institution,
- You leave the country, and
- The grant remains unclaimed for three months at a stretch.
Application Process: What You Should Know
How to apply:
- Visit your nearest SASSA office, bringing along:
Your national identity card or refugee permit, - The birth certificate of the child,
- The court order placing the child under your care,
- Proof of marital status, if applicable.
- Under supervision, fill in the forms.
- You shall acquire a receipt for the submission.
- Allow for three months for processing; if accepted, payments will be backdated to the date of the court order.
- A rejected application may be appealed before the Minister of Social Development within a 90-day period from the receipt of such a decision.
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