Company might not be so awesome

UNSUSPECTING pregnant women and mothers around the country have allegedly been scammed of their cash by a company promising to help them claim benefits from UIF.

The women approached a company called Awesome Moms to help them claim their benefits.

Weekend Argus spoke to three women who were referred to the company by a friend who claimed to have had “fantastic” service.

The women, who live in the Western Cape, KZN and Gauteng, told Weekend Argus they had on a number of occasions tried to make contact with the owner of the company, Mariska de Venter, but to no avail.

Efforts by Weekend Argus to reach De Venter also went unanswered.

Gadija Adhikarie from Lansdowne said she first made contact with Awesome Moms last July before she was due to go on maternity leave in October.

“I paid Awesome Moms R600 for them to assist with my UIF application and even spent R60 to courier the documents to Mariska, but the documents were never received,” said Adhikarie.

According to the frustrated new mother, she was supposed to have received her first UIF maternity benefits payment this month but that had not happened.

Adikharie said: “I did a Google search when I didn’t get any responses from Mariska and then I saw all the reviews on Hellopeter.com and I realised I had been scammed.”

Adhikarie is now apparently being assisted by UIF Heroes in Mowbray, which is charging an amount of R500 to all the moms who were “scammed” by Awesome Moms. According to Adhikarie, the standard fee charged by UIF Heroes is R700.

Weekend Argus spoke to UIF Heroes owner Klaus Arnhand, who said he had come to the rescue of these mothers and others.

Arnhand would, however, not answer questions about whether UIF Heroes was recognised by the Department of Labour.

KwaZulu- Natal mother Caitlyn Shewan, who lives in Underberg, first made contact with Awesome Moms last January. She paid R650 and later received correspondence from Awesome Moms which said that her documents had been handed in at the Phoenix labour office, which is more than 200km away.

Shewan said she had sent original documentation to Awesome Moms and could not get the documents returned.

“Since then I have sent copious emails and WhatsApps and SMSes to all numbers available. Last week I emailed Mariska on all of her email addresses and contact numbers, just asking for my documentation back so that I can try and do this process all over again.

“My daughter will be 1 in this month. I have had no response except a SMS saying I must email them and I have had no email reply since then.”

“My problem is that to get my gynae to re-sign the forms is going to be a mission because he has since moved provinces.”