Delays with payments, alleged fraud, an inadequate system and technical errors at the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) are a cause for concern and result in various problems which means that employees’ claims are not processed and paid in time.
The UIF appeared before the Portfolio Committee on Labour on Friday 3 July 2020, on request of the FF Plus to answer questions about these burning issues.
Due to the crisis brought about by Covid-19, the UIF has a very important role to play in making payments to companies that cannot afford to pay their employees’ salaries.
During its submission to the Committee, the UIF tried to explain how it is combating fraud and corruption with regard to the TERS emergency fund. Unfortunately, it is clear that many of these measures were put in place much too late and that the Fund cannot answer for outstanding claims.
The Minister of Labour, Thulas Nxesi, also refuses to answer questions about rumours that approximately one million employees’ payments amounting to about R4,2 billion is still outstanding due to a series of technical errors.
The profiles of claimants, which includes both employees and employers, containing sensitive personal information were also recently disclosed on the system due to a so-called technical error. The disclosure of such private information paves the way for even further fraud and corruption.
The UIF has put certain controls in place to combat fraud, but some basic measures, like the TERS fund’s functionality to verify the bank account details of beneficiaries, were only recently implemented.
Confirmed fraud amounting to about R5,7 million was recently identified when an employee of a certain company’s personal banking details were provided as the company’s own on the company’s UIF profile. If the fund had been ready to verify banking details at that time, this would not have happened.
Problems and delays relating to ordinary UIF payments, for maternity leave and disability for example, were once again brought to the Fund’s attention.
The FF Plus will keep putting pressure on the UIF to resolve the outstanding claims.
Read the original article in Afrikaans by Heloïse Denner on FF Plus
South Africa Today – South Africa News
