{"id":62824,"date":"2025-08-12T15:17:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T15:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/62824\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T15:17:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T15:17:14","slug":"sassa-deductions-from-veterans-pensions-of-urgent-concern-avsa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/62824\/","title":{"rendered":"SASSA deductions from veterans\u2019 pensions of urgent concern \u2013 AVSA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Military_veteran_DHS.jpg\" data-caption=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"503\" height=\"421\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Military_veteran_DHS.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Military_veteran_DHS\"\/><\/a>            <\/p>\n<p>Military veterans advocacy group Amalgamated Veterans of South Africa (AVSA) has raised its concerns over the lack of clarity with regard to South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) deductions from military veterans\u2019 pensions, which is causing confusion for former soldiers.<\/p>\n<p>Veterans over the age of 60 qualify for both the veteran\u2019s pension (R5\u00a0775 per month) and their SASSA old age grant (R2\u00a0310 per month). However, eligible recipients are not receiving the full payout from both, with the monthly payment being capped at R5\u00a0775. Naturally, veterans are entitled to and would like to receive both amounts.<\/p>\n<p>AVSA Founder and CEO Ernest Lintnaar pointed out that SASSA is a grant and veteran\u2019s pension is a benefit thanking veterans for their service to the country. Even with an outdated threshold (which has never been updated since 2011) of R125 000, receiving both the SASSA and veteran\u2019s pension amounts only adds up to R97 020 per annum.<\/p>\n<p>Lintnaar explained that the original Military Veterans Act (No. 18 of 2011) and the recent amendment document continue to lack any mention of requiring deductions from SASSA grants.<\/p>\n<p>The 2011 Act established a veterans\u2019 pension framework, setting payments at R5 400 monthly, intended to surpass SASSA\u2019s baseline, but offered no clarity on SASSA integration or deductions. The new amendment introduces a \u201c2.5 SASSA multiplier,\u201d adjusting pensions to approximately R5\u00a0775 per month, yet still omits any directive or rationale for deducting SASSA benefits, Lintnaar explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis silence persists despite parliamentary concerns about dual eligibility and means testing, raising questions about intent or oversight,\u201d Lintnaar said. Since SASSA is a grant and the military veterans\u2019 pension is a benefit (thanks for time served) it is confusing why there is no clarity on this, he added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis gap affects all registered veterans, with 18 000 pending pension applications requiring over R1.25 billion annually against a budget of just R878 million. The absence of a deduction policy could disqualify veterans from SASSA support without compensation, exacerbating financial strain, especially with the DMV\u2019s R20 million debt to SITA stalling system upgrades,\u201d the AVSA said. \u201cThe Government Pensions Administration Agency has even cancelled their roadshows, that reach out to veterans in remote and rural areas because of the fact that the DMV has no budget for this valuable service, and therefore many veterans will suffer in the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It has urged the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans (PCDMV) to address this omission by 31 August 2025, and ensure transparent benefit coordination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Military veterans advocacy group Amalgamated Veterans of South Africa (AVSA) has raised its concerns over the lack of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[50505,64,63,50506,99,186,50507,184,185,50508,1183,50509,50510],"class_list":["post-62824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-amalgamated-veterans-of-south-africa","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-avsa","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-military-veterans","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-sassa","tag-south-africa","tag-south-african-social-security-agency","tag-veterans-pension"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}