The Department of Employment & Labour has admitted that its fund was under pressure due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the department was looking at other measures to fast-track the process.
“We have acknowledged that our system was not designed to accommodate the increased volumes of requests we are witnessing due to Covid-19. We have already taken steps to mitigate this risk. We have asked the South African Revenue Service (SARS) to work with us to resolve the backlog we are currently experiencing.
“SARS has responded positively and they are sending a team to work with the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) to ensure that we distribute funds to deserving beneficiaries as swiftly and cost-efficiently as possible. We have equally engaged other private sector companies to work with the UIF to enhance the capacity of our IT system to respond to the growing number of requests,” said Minister Thulas Nxesi.
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The department indicated that about 9983 applications could not be processed due to errors, and the affected companies have been notified to correct their applications and resubmit. Some of the errors identified related to incorrect banking details, making it impossible for payments to be processed.
“The UIF is working around the clock to meet the extraordinary volumes of requests for assistance presented by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Covid-19 benefit scheme will provide much-needed relief to employees who have been laid off work or unable to earn an income due to Covid-19,” he said.
Furthermore, the department has increased the number of UIF call centre agents from 75 to 200 to man the toll-free number. The toll-free number is 0800030007
“These are important interventions that would go a long way towards alleviating some of the challenges we have been experiencing. The president has joined all of us to ensure that citizens are not unnecessarily inconvenienced as a result of the pandemic. As the department, we realise the critical role we have to play and we are encouraged by the spirit of solidarity both in the public and private sector. We are doing our utmost best to ease the hardship on workers,” added Nxesi.
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