A total of 606 462 employees who have lost their income as a result of the lockdown imposed to mitigate against the spread of COVID-19 will receive their benefit from the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF).
Of the received applications, the UIF has processed 37 673 employer applications which means that 606 462 employees will receive their benefit.
As part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the department issued a directive for relief to be provided to contributors who have lost income or required to take annual leave as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Following the directive, the Minister called on employers who are registered with the fund to apply for the COVID-19 benefits through the Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) on behalf of their employees.
As of Monday, the cumulative amount paid from April 16 to date is R1.1 billion.
Minister Nxesi acknowledged that the UIF system is under pressure as the fund is currently experiencing extraordinary volumes of requests due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have acknowledged that our system was not designed to accommodate the increased volumes of requests that we are witnessing due to the COVID-19. We have already taken steps to mitigate this risk. We have asked the South African Revenue Service to work with us to resolve the backlog we are currently experiencing,” said the Minister.
“We have equally engaged other private sector companies to work with UIF to enhance the capacity of our IT system to respond to the growing number of requests,” said Nxesi.
Besides the COVID-19 TERS benefits, the department continues to pay normal benefits.
As part of being more responsive to claimants, the UIF call centre – which initially had 75 agents – has increased its capacity and now has 200 agents manning the toll-free number at 0800 030 007.
The Minister said the more call centre agents will be added should the need arise.
“As the Department of Employment and Labour we realise the critical role we have to play and we are encouraged by the spirit of solidarity both in the public and private sector and we are doing our utmost best to ease the hardship on workers,” he said.
Employers can apply via www.ufiling.coza or contact the UIF on 0800 030 007
One Reply to “UIF pays out COVID-19 benefits to workers”