After a lengthy process, an elderly woman, Mrs Vera Moore, an Edenvale resident who had been battling with an Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) claim, has made some headway.
“It makes me so mad that I have worked, paid taxes and all other levies imposed on me and UIF for over 44 years and I get only half the state pension and still no luck with my UIF claim/money” said Mrs Moore
She said she has stood in queues for eight hours on three different days only to be treated “despicably” when she was eventually seen by a staff member.
A few months later she was told that the claim had been rejected without explanation.
After registering online she found out that her documents had been lost.
“I have re-submitted my documents at least 50 times via email but they still keep asking for the same things over and over,” said Mrs Moore.
“I have been waiting for almost a year to get my UIF claim sorted out,” she said
“According to UIF records, it was approved and a subsequent once-off payment has been processed and paid into the nominated bank account. The UIF will investigate the circumstances around the delays in finalising the application. However, there seems to have been a discrepancy regarding the period of service which impacted on the finalisation of the application,” said Mr Makhosonke Buthelezi, the UIF’s director of communicataions and marketing.
“The UIF is dealing with huge volumes of claims pursuant to the current economic status and has to call companies to request them to update and declare their employee information with UIF. Despite a number of campaigns appealing for companies to declare their employees with the organisation on a monthly basis, some companies fail to do so which results in the delay of processing claims which adversely affects our clients. As earlier stated the incident is regrettable and the UIF apologises for the inconvenience experienced by Ms Moore,” said Mr Buthelezi.
