For a few years the SRD grant ran almost entirely on database checks: your ID number against Home Affairs, your income against bank, SARS and UIF records. What those checks could not prove was that the person applying was the person whose ID was typed in. That gap left room for people to apply using someone else’s ID, which is one of the fraud risks SASSA’s referred status exists to catch. SASSA’s answer is facial biometric verification, which it calls electronic Know Your Client (eKYC).
What the facial check is for
eKYC compares a live photo of your face with the photo the Department of Home Affairs holds for your ID number. A match shows SASSA that the real ID holder is behind the application, the same principle banks use when you open an account. SASSA has described it as a once-off step rather than a monthly test, and it is free.
It sits alongside a wider move to biometrics. Since 1 September 2025, SASSA has enrolled biometrics at its offices for every grant application, not only the SRD.
Who SASSA asks to verify
SASSA does not publish exactly how it picks people, but its 2026 grant booklet and statements name these situations:
- Every new SRD applicant must pass facial verification before an application can be approved.
- Anyone changing the cellphone number on an SRD application.
- Applications marked referred, where the system has flagged a possible identity problem, fraud, or an ID already registered elsewhere.
- Approved months that are not being paid. SASSA’s advice for these is to request a verification link.
- Suspected fraud, or contact or banking details that look wrong. SASSA in Mpumalanga has given these as the reasons an identity verification request appears.
Being asked is not an accusation. Many honest applicants land in one of these groups simply because they changed phones or applied for the first time.
The process from start to finish
- The link. SASSA sends an SMS link to the cellphone number on your application, either on its own initiative or after you request one on srd.sassa.gov.za. Before you tap anything, our page on telling a genuine verification SMS from a fake shows what to check.
- The selfie. The link opens a page that uses your phone’s front camera. You take a live photo of your face.
- The match. SASSA’s system compares the photo with the Home Affairs image linked to your ID.
- The answer. The page tells you whether verification succeeded. After that, your monthly status is where it shows up; reading your facial recognition result covers that stage.
You need the phone with the registered SIM, a working camera, enough data or Wi-Fi to load the page, and your face clearly visible. No documents are uploaded. If you lack a smartphone or data, SASSA offices have biometric kiosks, laptops and guest Wi-Fi to do the check with staff help.
Your grant while the check is outstanding
SASSA holds payment until verification is complete. A new application will not be approved, and an approved month will not get a pay day, until the match succeeds. SASSA’s message is blunt: there is no shortcut around this step, so do it promptly to avoid delays.
If the check fails, fixing a failed biometric verification goes through the usual causes. If the problem is that Home Affairs has the wrong details or photo, SASSA cannot correct that; our page on ID and Home Affairs mismatches shows where to go.