DA wants clarity on Covid-19 TERS payments for immigrants

The Democratic Alliance (DA) called on Minister of Labour and Employment Thulas Nxesi to prove clarity on matters concerning the Covid-19 TERS payments issued by the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF).

The DA wants the minister to clarity on how much money was left from the UIF’s budget for the Covid-19 Ters benefit, whether the UIF has the capacity to process and pay Ters claims for the remainder of the lockdown and why there were reportedly a few immigrant workers that were paid out.

DA MP Michael Cardo said in a statement on Wednesday: “If, as National Treasury has predicted, between 3-7 million people lose their jobs because of Covid-19, then there is going to be huge pressure on the UIF in the form of retrenchment benefit claims very soon. The UIF’s actuaries need to tell us how much money is available and how long it will last.”

On the UIF’s capacity to process applications and pay workers, Cardo said without the South African Revenue Service’s (Sars) assistance, the UIF was at risk of an additional intolerable strain.

On paying immigrant workers, he further said that Nxesi had claimed that the UIF had developed a control whereby all foreign passport numbers would be verified by the department of home affairs through each relevant embassy.

“This is a long and tortuous process and something needs to be done urgently to ensure that foreign national workers get their just desserts,” he said.

The party also raised their concerns after UIF hadn’t begun accepting the Covid-19 TERS applications for May, which was meant to go live on Tuesday, 26 May.

“This constitutes a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. It means that millions of wage earners face the prospect of receiving no income for May until the middle of June at the very earliest.

“When the benefit finally arrives, it will be too little too late. Employers and employees have bills to pay and families to feed right now. They cannot wait,” he added.

However, the UIF has since issued an apology for a break in its network which as a result affected plans to capture the applications.

The company said the system could not run due to a damaged fibre link between the UIF’s offices and the State Information and Technology Agency (Sita).

(Compiled by Molefe Seeletsa)

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.