Sonja Vorster
For just little over a year, I have encountered several problems with claims to be processed and paid out by the Department of Labour’s Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF).
The department has made great strides and fantastic improvements in assisting employees but unfortunately the SYSTEM is letting down the most vulnerable of our society in their hour of need.
READ: Labour Buzz: National Minimum Wage effective January 1, 2019
When a person is dismissed the claim process works without any problems and payment can be received within 35 days. Therefore the way I am starting to look at it is, that wrongdoing gets rewarded.
BUT the two types of claims from the most vulnerable and innocent are having an endless battle, when they attempt to process a claim through UIF.
Those are for maternity benefits and death benefit claims. Three separate cases, many hours and only one case has been resolved.
Case 1: Maternity claim. Everything done correctly by the mother to be. Payment made to the mother only after the mother returned to work and the payment is still short by over R5 700.
Case 2: Maternity claim. Same as case one, all documentation processed but payment was delayed for no reason until after the mother returned to work. Four months with no income to feed the mother and child.
The third case is the saddest of them all, involving a grieving widow whose husband worked and paid towards the fund for many years. After a short-illness, he passed. Just some of the problems.
The department will NOT accept a document certified by a registered and qualified Commissioner of Oaths and INSISTS that it must be certified by the South African Police Service. Everywhere else, even the High Court of South Africa, accepts documentation from a certified Commissioner of Oaths.
Then another snag, as a woman you are entitled to have a choice upon marriage to retain your original surname and many do for professional reasons or to accept a double digit surname old/new or just accept your husband’s surname.
Approved by the Department of Home Affairs and marriage gets registered accordingly.
You cannot claim according to the UIF department AFTER your husband died if you have a different surname with your marriage certificate. They will not process the claim. I strongly suggest that the UIF department head office have a serious look at correcting these unconstitutional abuses towards the most vulnerable in our community.
I will be sending this article to the spokesperson of the department and hopefully get some reaction to rectify these difficulties.
READ THIS: Labour Buzz: Firm warning for employers to abide by the National Minimum Wage
Click to receive news links via WhatsApp. Or for the latest news, visit our webpage or follow us on Facebook and Twitter
