Moneyweb reports that the government-initiated Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme (Ters) is now paying out a day or two after the lodging of a successful claim.  Ters provides emergency relief for employers to claim benefits on behalf of their employees during the Covid-19 lockdown.  

This is to avoid employees losing income or being placed on annual leave as a result of the temporary closure of their employer’s operations.  The scheme is administered by the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF).  The main frustration for employers claiming benefits under the scheme relates to the constant changes to the system, system errors and only some employees getting paid despite their companies having gone through the same application process and submitting the same documents for their employees.  UIF Commissioner Teboho Maruping said several issues with the application and processing of Ters have been resolved, but many challenges remain.  “Our commitment is to improve all the time and to pay back the trust that has been placed in us as a public insurance fund,” Maruping promised.  So far, the Department of Employment and Labour has paid 2,551,236 workers, bringing the total value disbursed since 16 April to over R14 billion.  “We are now more confident in saying that we are on track to achieve our vision of a caring, accessible and customer-centric UIF that contributes towards poverty alleviation,” Maruping stated.

• Read the full original of the informative report in the above regard by Melitta Ngalonkulu at Moneyweb

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