Job seekers warned against bogus employers

THE Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has warned job seekers to be careful with their identity numbers following a surge in public complaints regarding bogus employers.

The UIF said the bogus employers have reportedly used job seekers’ identity numbers to register them with the fund and claim for the Covid-19 TERS benefit, and in some cases, unemployment benefits.

In a statement last week, the Department of Employment and Labour said most of the complaints emerged when several people applied for the Social Relief of Distress Grant (SRD) R350 grant from the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA). However, their claims were declined since they were registered with the UIF.

Read Also: Post Office flooded with enquiries about scams

“These are mainly learners/students, who are recruited for ‘learnerships’ and their studies are allegedly sponsored for R3 500, which was never paid to the learners but ended up being labelled as their monthly salary when claiming UIF,” the department said.

UIF Commissioner, Teboho Maruping, said subsequent to receiving these complaints, the Department of Employment and Labour’s provincial Risk Management Units, launched multiple investigations and has already identified some of the bogus employers.

“However, the fund is not at this stage able to mention them, as investigations are still underway. However, we can mention that some of these companies are in Kwazulu-Natal and others around the country. Furthermore, the fund has introduced the payment verification process to check the validity and existence of employees, which will assist us in tracking down all the bogus employers,” said Maruping.

Members of the public are advised to report these fraudulent activities at the nearest labour centre, or fraud@labour.gov.za (link sends e-mail), or call the National Anti-Corruption Hotline on 0800 701 701.