More than R5 billion has already been paid out in benefit for workers during the Covid-19 lockdown and the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has now improved their system so that applicants can see which companies have been paid.

“UIF has tweaked its systems to ensure that more pertinent information is available on its online platform,” spokesperson for die Department of Labour, Teboho Thejane said.
The Fund released the following upgrades to their systems:

• Employers, employees and organised labour will now be able to see which companies have been paid. This is in respect to a number of queries where workers have been unable to determine if their companies have applied for, and received payment on their behalf from the Department of Employment and Labour COVID-19 TERS scheme. This relieves the overwhelmed call centre as information is available at their fingertips
• Employers will be able to log in and check the status of their claims
• Employers will also be able to see the schedule of the approved claim which shows how much is due to each employee. Employers have inundated the UIF with requests for information on the exact amounts for different employees.
• Employers who do not know their UIF reference number but know their PAYE can now retrieve the UIF number by using their PAYE number.

“We continue to listen to our stakeholders and we will make further enhancement to the system in response to the identified needs of our stakeholders,” said UIF Commissioner Teboho Maruping.

“At some stage, it looked like our system could not handle the overwhelming interest but we are happy that we have managed to meet the demand and pay in record time – with some people indicating that they have been paid within 24-hours of lodging the claims,” she said.

To date, the UIF has paid more than 1 035 303 workers COVID-19 TERS relief benefits to the tune of R4 109 434 596.70. For normal benefits, the UIF has paid nearly R1-billion (R970 915 807.31). The figures paid to-date represent successful claims submitted by 72 221 employers.

The department urges employers to apply for relief on behalf of their employees.