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SASSA Offices Banking Details Contact SASSA Check Status →SASSA found your ID number in the government payroll (PERSAL) database, which means you are identified as a national, provincial, or municipal government employee. State employees do not qualify for the SRD R370 grant.
SASSA's system cross-checks the PERSAL government payroll system - which covers national and provincial government employees - every month. If your ID appears as an active or recent government employee, your SRD will be declined with state_employee. Municipal (local government) employees may also be captured through other payroll databases.
You appear as an active employee in the PERSAL government payroll system. This is the most straightforward reason. However, false positives do occur: a resigned or terminated government employee whose PERSAL record was not updated in time; an error where someone else's ID was captured against a government employment record; or a casual/temporary government contract that has ended but the database hasn't updated.
If you are currently a government employee, you do not qualify for the SRD grant - government employees earn a salary above the R624 threshold by definition.
Ask them to confirm that your PERSAL record has been updated to reflect your departure and the date your employment ended. Request a written confirmation.
The Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) manages PERSAL. Call 012 336 1000 or email info@dpsa.gov.za with your ID and employment details and request your record be updated.
If your government employment has ended, appeal the declined months and explain that you are no longer a state employee. Attach the confirmation letter from your former employer or DPSA as supporting documentation.
After your PERSAL record is corrected, it can take 4–8 weeks for SASSA's monthly database check to reflect the change. The next few monthly cycles should then pass the check automatically.
PERSAL is the government's payroll system, and if your ID sits on it, SASSA treats you as employed by the state. For current government employees that's a correct decline and there's no way around it.
The problem is former employees. PERSAL records are notoriously slow to close, and I've come across people who left a government post well over a year earlier and were still being declined on that basis. Contract workers and people who did short stints at a department or municipality seem to get caught most often.
What you need is proof of when the employment ended - a termination letter, a final payslip, or a letter from the department's HR office. Then appeal with that date stated clearly. Asking SASSA to "check again" without a document rarely moves anything, because SASSA isn't the one holding the incorrect record.
Paul Geddes, SassaHelp