Ters extension details being ironed out
“Sectors not fully operational since the beginning of the lockdown may receive assistance.”
The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) said it was still working out the “granular details” of the Covid-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (Ters) scheme, as announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa during his annual state of the nation (Sona) address last week.
Ramaphosa said on Thursday that the fund will be extending Ters benefits from 16 October 2020 to 15 March 2021.
“The granular details about who the extension will be applied to will be discussed and finalised by social partners at Nedlac,” said UIF communications and marketing director Makhosonke Buthelezi.
Buthelezi said in a statement on Friday that an announcement would be made on whom the extension would apply to.
However, “it is envisaged that sectors that are not fully operational since the beginning of the lockdown will require and may receive assistance”.
Buthelezi said these sectors include the tourism, hospitality, liquor industry and other related sectors within that value chain.
“The UIF will announce the opening of the system for the new period once the work to configure its systems is complete, and provide guidelines to assist users with the application process.”
He said the fund would continue to process and pay valid and complete outstanding Ters claims that were already in the system.
He said the fund continuously re-processed claims already in the system, so that those that had been corrected and had passed validations could be paid when payment re-runs were conducted.
“So far, the fund has paid close to R60-billion since March last year. This has been done in 13 million iterated payments. The initial budget was R40-billion.”
Buthelezi said this social assistance from the Department of Employment and Labour formed part of the overall government response to fighting the worst effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and ensure that workers were not left destitute as a result of the closure of the economy.
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