Challenges as employers don’t pay UIF

Lolo Madonsela

The Employment & Labour Department has been flooded with complaints that employers were not paying employees their Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) for the Covid-19 Temporary Employer / Employee Relief Scheme (TERTS).
These allegations by employees have compelled Minister Thulas Nxesi to appeal to employers to hand over Covid-19 relief funds to employees.
“To date, we have paid close to R9 billion in Covid-19 relief. This is the amount we are paying for relief for workers and we appeal to the employers to ensure that it is paid to workers without any further delay,” said Minister Nxesi.
He stated that to ensure that there were no delays in payments to workers, the UIF provided employers with a breakdown of how much each worker deserved. Nxesi said this was after there were complaints that the lump sums were confusing employers.
“We took a decision to break down even the payments; a decision that saw our systems almost overwhelmed with information, as we did not want workers’ funds to be delayed even further. We once again appeal to employers with outstanding information regarding claims to ensure that they forward these as soon as possible.
“A total of 576,639 workers have been disadvantaged to the tune of close to R2.4 billion. There are also 17,473 workers who are disadvantaged because of failed bank verification and an amount of R80,124,837.42 will be paid over as soon as this is resolved,” Nxesi said.

Also read: UIF system under pressure due to Covid-19

Nxesi further indicated that there was great concern that employees may be missing out on benefits because of missing information.
“The UIF is concerned that, as of today, 220,768 employees who collectively may be entitled to as much as R927,694,773 in benefits have their payments delayed pending verification by the employers because some of the beneficiaries either do not appear in the UIF’s system or the information given is insufficient.
“When we receive applications from employers, we verify information to ensure that the employees they are claiming for appear in our system. When we identify inconsistencies, we send the enquiry to the employer for verification,” stated Nxesi.
According to the department, companies that were facing distress and contributed to the UIF should apply through https://uifecc.labour.gov.za/covid19/ for assistance and those companies not registered with the UIF by March 15, 2020, may not apply, as they do not qualify.
The fund has also emphasised that all businesses with employees (from spaza shops to hair salons) who are registered with UIF can apply for the relief, including employers of domestic workers.
Commission earners and freelance employees do not contribute to UIF and therefore do not qualify for the relief.
UIF Commissioner Teboho Maruping stressed that, “While the employer has the right to let employees stay at home for the period of the lockdown, they still need to assist them to apply for the Covid-19 TERS benefits so that employees do not lose income. While the UIF remains concerned with companies that refuse to claim on behalf of their employees, it welcomes the effort of all those companies that have heeded the call and claimed on behalf of their employees. Once again, the UIF wishes to encourage all those companies that might be encountering challenges with applications to contact our offices.”
To date, the UIF has paid R8,836,010,295.56 to 114,661 employers for 1,525,308 workers; R152,031,601.04 paid through 845 bargaining councils, affecting 56,456 workers and R1,295,078,468.38 in ordinary benefits.

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