UIF pays R1.1 billion to struggling employers

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The UIF has received more than 55,000 applications from employers representing about 1.6 million employees. 

The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) paid a cumulative amount of R1.1 billion in Covid-19 relief by 16 April. The Department of Labour recently released a statement explaining that the UIF had received more than 55,000 applications from employers representing about 1,601,767 employees.  Of the employer applications received, 37 673 had been processed with 606 462 employees due to receive their benefit, according to the statement.

“About 9 938 applications couldn’t be processed due to errors and the affected companies have been notified to correct their applications and resubmit. Some of the errors identified relate to incorrect banking details, making it impossible for payments to be processed. Some of the errors identified relate to incorrect banking details, making it impossible for payments to be processed,” raid the statement, in which the Labour Minister Thulas explained that the UIF was working round the clock to meet the extraordinary volumes of requests for assistance. He said the Department was concerned, however, about whether their UIF system would be able to handle such extraordinary volumes and has requested support for the South African Revenue Service (SARS). 

Said the Minister: “The Covid-19 benefit scheme will provide much needed relief to employees who have been laid off work or unable to earn an income due to Covid-19. 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 SARS to work with us to resolve the backlog we are currently experiencing. SARS has responded positively and they are sending a team to work with the UIF to ensure that we distribute funds to deserving beneficiaries as swift and cost-efficient as possible. 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.”

 

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