Unemployment Insurance Fund reaches 100% of its objectives
This was announced at a media networking session on 7 November held at Polokwane Royal Hotel.
POLOKWANE – Various issues were discussed including the assistance that the UIF brings to struggling companies and the terms and conditions of qualifying for UIF and the importance of compliance.
Businesses are urged to register with the UIF, not only to protect themselves but for their employees’ sake as well.
Part of the programme was the Labour Activation Programme (LAP), that has been put in place to find poverty alleviation schemes as a result of the number of people who needed the UIF, whose benefits deplete months down the line and they are left without a plan and remain unemployed.
Another downside is when you are unemployed and you don’t have a qualification, for example, there are people who have been working in industries for 20 years but they don’t have a qualification.
As we live in a world where your qualification is your life, if you don’t produce the qualification, you can’t do the job because employers don’t have the time to test you before they consider employing you.
The Training Layoff Scheme is also offered by the UIF to assist businesses that are facing financial difficulties and are looking to retrench workers.
In order to do this, the CCMA needs to be informed.
They will advocate the Training Layoff Scheme while a turnaround scheme is being sought, the employees will go on the employee training interventions and the Unemployment Intervention Fund will pay them a training allowance.
In the entire Limpopo, no company has sought assistance via this scheme.
It gives the workers allowance for the days that they attend training. The changes have been as to how the Training Lay off Scheme is administered.
Another important part of benefitting from the UIF is compliance. Businesses need to be up-to-date with their compliance, as non-compliance can lead to workers not being able to claim when they become unemployed.
The UIF strives to ensure that quality of service continues to improve.
It implements a change that ensures no bulk payments, claims will be made out monthly. They are making the process of claiming from UIF easier and user friendly by implementing Wifi in the offices so that people can make online submissions instead of waiting in line.
They are also looking into making use of USSD so that even people without smartphones can still check whether they are registered for UIF.
