Employers ‘play role in UIF delays’
THE Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) says negligence by employers is one of the reasons why employees’ claims are delayed or rejected.
Assistant director of operations Simenyiwe Mchunu briefed the media yesterday on KZN UIF normal benefits and unpacked statistics on the Workers Affected by Unrest fund and Covid-19 Temporary Employer-employee Relief Scheme payments.
He said more than R15 billion was disbursed in more than three million payments in normal UIF benefits nationally between April and September, and R2bn was paid out in KZN in over 490 000 payments. More than 400 000 claims were processed and finalised, and 444 609 created.
“The rejection of claims mostly happens because employers do not register their employees and declare them to be working under them. We can only know which employer an employee was working for after their contracts have been terminated. We cannot process the claim of an unregistered and undeclared employee until an employer submits a declaration stating how much the employee is owed in contributions,” he said.
Other delays, according to Mchunu, were due to the large-scale shedding of jobs, clients submitting continuation forms, large numbers of UIF enquiries and application backlogs.
He said people should check their status while employed by, among others, using their USSD code or app. “Most people are not even aware that they are not registered by their employers with the fund.
“We are trying to push compliance issues through our inspectors who focus on UIF. However, we cannot reach everyone at the same time.”
Chief inspector of Enforcement Services in KZN, Edward Khambula said inspections conducted since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic found that there was a high level of non-compliance with the legislation.
“There are 249 inspected workplaces and 130 of them were found non-compliant. Some of the employers ended up complying with the regulations and safety measures of Covid-19. Nine others were referred for prosecution in terms of employment equity.”