The Northern Cape had the least number of claimants.
A TOTAL of R140 million has been paid out in terms of the Covid-19 Temporary Employee/Employer Relief Scheme (TERS) to 25 155 workers in the Northern Cape.
Just less than 3 000 (2 972) employers applied for the TERS funding from the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF).
UIF spokesperson Tebogo Thejane said that Gauteng had the highest number of beneficiaries who have been paid Covid-19 TERS benefits. Almost half of the more than R14 billion paid out so far has been paid to 1 186 833 workers in Gauteng via 79 271 employers.
The Western Cape is the second highest province with R2.3bn disbursed so far for 429 793 workers represented by 38 486 employers.
KwaZulu-Natal is the third largest recipient with over R2.1bn paid there to 409 775 workers as claimed by 29 988 employers, while fourth spot is the Eastern Cape with R782m distributed to 146 189 workers in the province represented by 13 163 employers.
They are followed by Mpumalanga, with 145 046 workers represented by 10 991 employers being handed R760m in cash benefits, the Free State, with 90 553 workers represented by 10 240 employers who in total claimed R477m, Limpopo, with 73 001 workers getting their share via 6 993 employers totalling R372m, and the North West, with R93m distributed there for 69 041 workers who had their applications submitted by 6 536 employers.
The Northern Cape had the least number of claimants.
Thejane said that more and more people were being paid directly even though the claims were submitted by the employers.
So far, 78 431 workers have been paid directly a total of R350m and they are represented by 5 975 employers.
UIF Commissioner Teboho Maruping said employers still have until the end of May to address queries where the UIF has reverted to them with regard to incomplete information.
He said that had resulted in the UIF holding back close to R2.5bn for 569 418 workers, saying the claims have been lodged by 78 831 employers.
“Ordinarily, feedback for payment or non-payment with reasons thereof together with acceptance or approval is sent to employers via automated process within 24 hours through the e-mail address provided in addition to the on-line portal.
“The UIF will still be attending to general enquiries till the end of May for April applications. Employees not found on the UIF database are submitted to Sars (SA Revenue Service) for verification and upon receipt of SARS results, the successful employees’ applications will be processed for payment during the month of May. In the case that the SARS verification does not yield results, we will continue with the verification process by exploring other avenues,” Maruping said.
He said further that at the height of the applications, the UIF registered as many as 1 711 505 hits which at times caused the site to crash. “But that now is in the past and going forward, the site has been improved and capacity significantly ramped up,” Maruping said.
