EWN reports that Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) Minister Thulas Nxesi on Tuesday advised that the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) was making steady progress on its promise to earnestly start capturing and processing many Covid-19 relief benefits applications.  

His department reported that a total of R1-billion had already been processed for payment to 252,378 workers represented by more than 26,000 employers.  The minister said the UIF was working around the clock to ensure that the outstanding payments were processed as soon as possible.  The cash payments to workers who have found themselves in the lurch as a result of lockdown have been significant in saving at least three million workers from poverty, Nxesi said in a statement.   He added that this time around the payments should be a lot quicker as the UIF already had details for most of the claimants.  “I have been assured that we would realise significant improvements in terms of payment turnaround time from claim submissions. Already, with all the information supplied, the UIF was able to pay some claim in 24 hours at best or 48 at worst, which is far more from when we started around 16 April,” Nxesi stated.

• Read the original of the report in the above regard by Tara Penny at EWN

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