In addition, Covid-19 Ters payments in the Northern Cape amounted to R577 million.
THE UNEMPLOYMENT Insurance Fund (UIF) approved 68,842 normal benefit claims and paid out R312 million to beneficiaries in the Northern Cape during the 2020/21 financial year.
The senior administrative officer of the UIF in the Province, Isaac Mogorosi, said yesterday that the highest claims related to unemployment benefits.
The R312 million is broken down as follows:
– 62,622 unemployment claims worth R270 million
– 159 reduced work time claims worth R650,017
– 3,470 maternity claims worth R20.1 million
– 915 illness claims worth R7.4 million
– 897 parental claims worth R477,824
– 779 death claims worth R12.9 million
Mogorosi said that long queues, office closures at labour centres due to Covid-19 cases and backlogs due to staff working on shift rotations were some of the challenges that arose during the national lockdown.
“The Province quickly put in place several measures to ensure that UIF claims are assessed and paid. These include processing UIF payments without physical submission of continuation forms, accepting applications via e-mail and drop boxes, the leveraging of online platforms such as www.ufiling.co.za/uif for request for payments, processing bulk applications through a spreadsheet and the appointment of queue marshals to ensure adherence to Covid-19 regulations.
“Our officials also worked overtime on weekends and we extended the working hours and also worked on weekends at labour centres to clear backlogs.”.
UIF director of communication and marketing, Makhosonke Buthelezi added that a total of R577 million was paid out to beneficiaries in the Northern Cape from the UIF’s Covid-19 Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme (Covid-19 Ters).
“Since the start of the national lockdown in April, the fund has disbursed just over R61.9 billion to 783,151 employees as of July 14 throughout the country.”
Buthelezi stated that common reasons for rejecting claims included deceased employees, duplicate IDs, inmates and incorrect banking details.
He said the fund recorded 344 Covid-19 Ters fraud cases nationally, while zero cases of fraud were recorded in the Northern Cape.
“Of these cases, 240 have been finalised, 104 are outstanding and 16 people were arrested nationally and appeared in various courts around the country.”
He added that the applications for phase 3 of the Covid-19 Ters extension opened on July 19 to assist businesses and workers affected by the recent unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
