UIF extends window for April and May coronavirus employee relief funding
The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) says it will continue processing new Covid-19 Temporary Employee / Employer Relief Scheme (TERS) claims for April and May until a cut-off date is announced.
The fund said that it has also reached an agreement with Nedlac social partners to ensure that new applications made for the April/May period should still be processed and that there will be a 14-day notice window period given to employers and employees before applications will close.
This 14-day notice window period will be announced at a later date, it said.
The UIF is ‘working tirelessly’ to ensure that all valid Covid-19 TERS Benefits claims for April, May and June are settled and sorted out as it gears up to open the system for the new extended period of six weeks ending on 15 August 2020, said UIF commissioner Teboho Maruping.
“The fund is also working on a number of front-end adjustments to the system to enable applicants to fix some of the errors on their own which will greatly ease the load on our side and improve the flow,” he said.
Maruping added that incidents of fraud have prompted the fund to introduce the verification of banking details before payment is released into the applicant’s bank account.
“The UIF is reliant on the banks to ensure bank details verification. In instances where claims have failed bank verification, we appeal to employers to update the banking details on the system.
“The process to be followed will be outlined in the FAQs that will soon be made available on the Department’s website and the TERS online system.”
“The fund has made this activity to be the responsibility of the client because of its sensitive nature, but most importantly it removes the potential of our officials meddling with client’s private information,”said Maruping.
Maruping said that the UIF has paid out a total of R37.1 billion to 693,561 applications benefiting 8.3 million workers.
“With the testimonies that we are receiving, it is quite clear to us that these disbursements have made a real difference to millions of people dependent on the workers who received these cash injections.
“The fund will leverage its resources to ensure that it continues to process those claims that are in the system and honour those that are valid in line with commitment it has made to various parliamentary committees and the workers in this country.”
Read: Updates on South Africa’s coronavirus employee relief funding