Business Insider SA reports that last month almost 700,000 applications from companies for special Covid-19 payouts from the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) failed because their employees were not registered with the fund.  

More than 113,000 businesses submitted Covid-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (Ters) claims for 697,418 employees who were not on the UIF data base.  The companies have to register the employees with the UIF before they can claim.  The UIF said it was concerned about the high number of undeclared workers on whose behalf employers were putting in claims.  "For us to pay any claim we must find the employee on our system and it is the employer’s duty to declare the employee to us," the UIF’s Makhosonke Buthelezi indicated.  The applications for May’s Ters payments opened two weeks ago, and so far there have been unsuccessful applications for at least 76,599 workers who do not appear on the database.  Last month, the rules changed in respect of who is eligible for the Ters payments.  While at first only companies who paid UIF contributions could get the payouts for their workers, now employees whose employers didn’t register for UIF can also apply for payments, directly from the UIF. Employees who are registered for UIF, but whose employers didn't apply for the Ters payments, can now also apply directly with the UIF.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Business Insider

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