UIF urges employers to declare workers
This is required by law and avoids delays with benefit applications and payments
THE Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has urged employers to pay contributions and declare their workers every month.
This is required by law and avoids delays with benefit applications and payments.
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Speaking at an employer advocacy session in Durban, UIF provincial support director Allan Ragavaloo said the majority of normal benefit payments, including Covid-19 Ters, were delayed owing to a lack of up-to-date declarations by employers.
“If employers are 100% compliant with the fund’s legislation, as well as paying contributions and declaring their workers monthly, we would not experience significant delays with paying claims,” said Ragavaloo.
“The majority of the Covid-19 Ters payments were delayed for this reason. If all employers had declared their workers to the UIF prior to lockdown, we would not have experienced these delays.”
Ragavaloo also explained in detail the error codes that impeded Covid-19 Ters payments, which included incorrect ID and passport numbers, failed bank verifications, no declarations, and salary discrepancies.
“I encourage employers to log into the Covid-19 Ters portal and if you have any errors, look at the solutions on the system and rectify the errors so we can process and pay the claim,” said Ragavaloo.
He also stressed that employers who were aggrieved about their claims being rejected are entitled to follow the fund’s appeal process.
Speaking at the event, UIF acting ICT director Viwe Gqoli said the fund had a responsibility to pay all valid Covid-19 Ters claims presently on the system, however, the onus is on the employers to correct the errors because the fund is not permitted to implement corrections on their behalf.
“The UIF is trying to close the Covid-19 Ters system and we advise employers to finalise their claims.
“We do not have a backlog on new Ters applications in the system, instead, we regularly re-run claims that are already in the system, hoping errors have been corrected, but we receive the same outcome. “Therefore, we suggest you correct the errors before we close the system,” said Gqoli.
He also divulged that the UIF had disbursed R9.2-billion through Covid-19 Ters payments and
R15-million for Workers Affected By Unrest (WABU) in KZN, bringing relief to thousands of workers affected by lockdown and the July 2021 unrest.
Addressing the issue of fraud, deputy director Sibongiseni Mpanza stressed that employers must always safeguard their uFiling log-in details.
“Giving your uFiling credentials to third parties or other people is similar to people having your bank card and pin because they may commit fraud which could lead to your company being blacklisted by Treasury,” said Mpanza.
