THE Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has disbursed R64 billion to 5,7 million workers, surpassing its initial budget by R24 billion; Minister of Employment and Labour Thulas Nxesi said yesterday.
March 26 marked the two-year anniversary of the Covid-19 Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme (TERS).
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“The Scheme was primarily formed to save jobs and ease the financial burden on businesses but most importantly, their vulnerable workers after the country was placed on the first hard lockdown from March 26. 2020 to April 16, 2020 to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said in a media statement.
“As some level of normality has resumed this year, including a lot of economic activity, we are winding down and preparing to close Covid-19 TERS by paying all valid and remaining claims. In this regard, we will continue urging employers to correct all errors on the Covid-19 TERS portal to enable us to disburse all outstanding monies and bring an end to the scheme,” added Nxesi.
He said the UIF grew from R53 billion in 2011 to R151 billion before the introduction of Covid-19 TERS and that it was the accumulated contributions of workers and the Public Investment Corporation’s (PIC) investment management, that made the fund possible. He said UIF was again called to intervene in July last year following the unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
“UIF was called again to intervene to save potential job losses resulting in the launch of the Workers Affected By Unrest (WABU) relief scheme. The purpose of WABU was primarily to protect those workers who suddenly found themselves with no place to work due to their workplaces being damaged,” he added.
Nxesi said this payment was made directly into the employee’s accounts to ensure that beneficiaries were paid out as some employees had not paid workers their TERS payouts.
“The UIF remains in a sound financial position, as the assets have increased from R115 billion to R124 billion by December 31, 2021, and this will ensure future payments of normal benefit claims and administrative costs,” he added.
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