If the last time you used the SRD website it was paying R350, parts of it will feel unfamiliar now. The address is the same, but some features have moved, some are gone and a few are new. Here is the then-and-now, so you know where things live before you start.
In the R350 days: three ways in
When the grant restarted in August 2021, the Minister of Social Development listed three official channels for applying: the website srd.sassa.gov.za, a WhatsApp line (082 046 8553) and a USSD code (*134*7737#). In 2020 the GovChat platform also helped DSD and SASSA roll the grant out. Many people never saw the website at all and did everything by WhatsApp or USSD.
Today: the website is the hub
SASSA’s 2026 “You and Your Grant” booklet names srd.sassa.gov.za as the place to apply, check status, add bank details and update contact details. It lists a WhatsApp chatbot on 082 054 0016, but not the 2020 WhatsApp line or the USSD code. We cannot confirm whether those older routes still respond, so do not rely on them.
The Moya app still opens the SRD site without using your data, but Moya is only a doorway: the app itself does not process applications or statuses. SASSA does that on its own site.
The status check, compared
Today’s status check asks for two things, your ID and the phone number linked to your application, then sends a PIN by SMS that you type in before any result appears. The result lists your months one by one, each with its own outcome, and an approved month shows a pay day once payment is processed. SASSA also publishes a status guide on the SRD site that explains each message.
What has not changed: there is still no username, password or account to create. People who search for an “SRD login” are usually looking for this PIN step; our SRD login page explains why there is nothing to sign up for. For a screen-by-screen walk-through of the check, use our full status check guide.
Features that have disappeared
- Reconsideration on the SRD site. This covered applications from May 2020 to March 2022. SASSA has finished that processing and closed it. There is no separate reconsideration step any more.
- Post Office as a payment choice. Post Office cash payments were phased out in 2024, and Postbank ended cash services at Post Office branches on 1 May 2026.
- Applying by USSD or the old WhatsApp line. Neither appears in SASSA’s 2026 channel list.
Where the old functions live now
- Disputing a declined month: appeals go to the Independent Tribunal for Social Assistance Appeals on srd.dsd.gov.za, a DSD site. You sign in there with your ID, cellphone number and an OTP, and lodge one appeal per declined month.
- Changing your cellphone number: the SRD site’s contact-update function. It asks for your ID number and your six-digit application ID (AppID), allows one request every 24 hours, and a number change sets off facial-recognition verification.
- Adding or changing bank details: still on the SRD site, after SASSA sends a link by SMS to your registered number.
- Proving who you are: new in recent years. SASSA texts you a link, you take a selfie, and the system compares it with your Home Affairs photo. All new applicants must pass it, and it is also used when an approved month is not paid or an application is referred.
If the site itself will not load, freezes on the PIN or shows an error page, that is a technical fault rather than a change in the process. Our troubleshooting page for the R370 status check deals with those. And if what confuses you is the amount rather than the screens, see why R350 became R370.