UIF processing payments for outstanding Covid-19 Ters claims

The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) is in the process of paying its outstanding Covid-19 Ters claims for September and October.

UIF communication and marketing director Makhosonke Buthelezi said payment re-runs for outstanding claims for the period between April to 15 September 2020 would be done.

“The fund has also started processing and paying claims to foreign nationals who were verified via the department of home affairs and the revenue service and meet all other verification processes,” said Makhosonke.

“These payments come on the back of R55.6-billion to millions of workers from 1.1-million applications that the fund has disbursed since the first lockdown in March.”

Makhosonke said this figure included just over R2-billion paid to 491 410 foreign nationals from 95 834 applications by employers.

Acting commissioner Marsha Bronkhorst said the fund had been sporadically re-running claims for the previous months.

“However, this time, we have decided to recycle all claims to ensure that those that have updated declarations and discrepancies are paid when we re-run the payments.

“We have dedicated the entire week to re-run payments for a period between April to September 2020, and we shall repeat for all lockdown period on Saturday, 19 December, to try clear the backlog as far as we possibly can so that beneficiaries will not suffer during this festive season.”

She said the payments for the 16 September to 15 October period, had already commenced with R1-billion disbursed to 272 686 workers through 22 884 employer claims.

Ters claims would close on 31 December 2020, and no further applications would be accepted.

Bronkhorst said as the festive season was underway, annual leave for all key personnel in operations, ICT and finance had been postponed in order to fasttrack the processing and payment of claims, including claims for normal UIF benefits.

“Officials at senior management and those processing and paying claims will not be going on leave except for the mandatory shutdown period from 24 December 2020 to 1 January 2021, which is used for systems maintenance.

“The decision to postpone annual leave for some of our officials was not taken lightly, but is being implemented to ensure that we continue to process and pay claims to our beneficiaries to enable them to meet their financial obligations and support their families during the festive season,” said Bronkhorst.

Bronkhorst said through the appointed auditing firms, the UIF had also begun phase 1 of the “follow the money” project to check the authenticity of claims and verify if the money was paid over to workers.

“Due to the festive season, the auditors will cease work on 18 December, and resume on 4 January 2021.”

The UIF advised employers who submitted Covid-19 Ters claims via CSV file for April to 15 September periods, and where “no employees” appears on the online portal, to assume that their CSV file was incorrectly formatted.

“As per agreement with social partners, applicants who attempted to upload prior to the closing dates, and whose attempt failed due to technical issues, are given a further opportunity to re-submit.”

Here is the process to follow, to re-submit your claim data:

• Complete the standard Excel template for the relevant lockdown period.
• Mail to Covid19failedCSV@labour.gov.za (link sends e-mail).
• Ensure that your email subject line reflects the month for which the claim is made, e.g. “July/Aug”.
• Please send only one file, per email, with the correct month reflected in the subject line.
• The received Excel template will be checked and converted into the correct CSV format.
• The UIF will conduct a check on the Covid-19 Ters system, and if this audit confirms that the applicant made a submission on or before the closure date, the CSV will be loaded and processed.
• The processing will only take place from 14 December onwards.

This article first appeared on Rekord and was republished with permission.

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