DA calls on labour minister to release opening date for July TERS applications
According to the National Employers’ Association of South Africa, 42 per cent of employers have still not received their TERS payment.
THE Democratic Alliance has called on the Minister of Employment and Labour, Thulas Nxesi, to indicate when the July applications for the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s (UIF) Covid-19 TERS benefit will open.
“The TERS scheme is due to come to an end on 15 August, and July applications still aren’t open. He owes it to the anxious and desperate workers of South Africa, who aren’t sure when their next pay cheque will arrive,” said the DA’s Shadow Minister for Employment and Labour, Dr Michael Cardo.
Cardo noted that applications for May opened at midnight on 26 May and applications for June opened on 24 June.
“It then closed almost immediately because of security and data breech issues, with functionality only restored on the weekend of 11 and 12 July,” he said.
According to a survey by the National Employers’ Association of South Africa (Neasa), 42 per cent of employers across the country still haven’t received their June TERS money. Of the 58 per cent of employers who received payment for June, only 70 per cent were paid in full.
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Fourteen per cent of employers still haven’t received their April UIF/TERS monies and, of the 86 per cent that did, only 66 per cent were paid in full.
For May, 23 per cent of employers did not receive TERS funds and of the 77 per cent that did, only 64 per cent were paid out in full.
“We are almost halfway through August and nobody is any the wiser about when July applications will open. We don’t know whether July applications will be considered separately from August applications, or whether the six-week bloc between 1 July and 15 August will be treated as a single pay period with a single application process,” said Cardo.
Questions were sent to the Department of Employment and Labour and the Highway Mail are awaiting a response.
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