Despite the FF Plus’s information to the contrary, the Department of Labour maintains that there is no backlog with Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) claims for maternity leave.
According to the Department, all valid and complete claims that have been submitted to the Fund so far have been fully processed and paid out.
This was the statement made in response to a parliamentary question by the FF Plus to the Minister of Labour and Job Creation, Thulas Nxesi.
It, however, seems that either the Department is unaware of what is actually going on with regard to its own Fund’s maternity leave claims, or it is being blatantly dishonest about the backlog with maternity leave claims.
The FF Plus asked the Minister how many maternity leave claims have currently been submitted to the UIF and what the backlog was with the payment of correct and complete claims.
In his reply, the Minister alleged that the UIF provides a result to the claimant within ten days of receiving such a claim and that successful claims are paid out within five days.
However, the FF Plus is contacted by claimants of maternity leave benefits on a daily basis, some have been waiting for their maternity leave payments from the UIF for months while others have waited years.
In many cases, claimants are asked to repeatedly submit the same documents, which they do, only to be informed that those same documents are still outstanding.
It, therefore, appears as if the Minister of Labour and his Department are either unaware of what is going on in this entity, or are simply being dishonest about it.
This is causing great frustration as many claimants are dependent on the money and have to endure serious inconvenience when claims are not paid out.
Read the original article in Afrikaans by Heloïse Denner on FF Plus
