BL Premium reports that technical glitches and backlogs have hobbled the government’s flagship programme to cushion the Covid-19 economic shock.  

This has resulted in R4.2bn in unpaid claims and cash denied to nearly a million potentially deserving workers who haven’t had an income in three months.  The Covid-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (Ters), which has paid out R26bn to 5.8-million employees to date, has been hit by technical malfunction, including problems with its registration system.  Most recently, the site had to be temporarily shut down as it showed applicants’ confidential details.  According to labour minister Thulas Nxesi’s report on the UIF relief plan as of 25 June, 965,751 employees covered by 176,102 employers have not been paid because they were not found on the system.  With some employees who applied in April not yet paid, problems with the programme is as a blow to the government’s broader plan under a R500bn relief package of ensuring that businesses retain workers even when they’re reeling from lockdown restrictions.  The UIF on Friday said it was committed to ensuring that applications received in April and May that had been registered in the system would still be processed and paid once all relevant documents and information had been received.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Genevieve Quintal at BusinessLive (paywall access only)

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