Moneyweb reports that funds for financially distressed businesses that have applied for the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s (UIF) relief scheme to assist them in paying workers during the Covid-19 crisis are only slowly trickling in.  

An examination of the complaints from business owners on social media shows frustration over the bureaucratic process and red tape involved in claiming from the UIF’s Covid-19 Temporary Employer-Employee Scheme (Ters).  The view that claims aren’t being processed holds true when the figures are examined.  To date, the UIF has received 39,000 applications and has only processed 136.  The reason for this was that only 136 applications out of the entire batch were valid, UIF Commissioner Teboho Maruping indicated.  The UIF has had to remove 15,755 duplicate applications, leaving it with 23,245 applications.  Maruping said 23,000 companies were sent e-mails on Saturday advising them to resubmit the correct file format and/or supply full information.  For instance, one critical piece of information that has been missing from many applications is the amount of remuneration the employee has received during the shutdown period.  The UIF has set aside R40 billion for the Ters benefit.

• Read the full original of the informative report in the above regard by Tebogo Tshwane at Moneyweb
• Read too, Workers not registered for UIF relief to be hit hard financially during Covid-19, at The Star

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page