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TimesLIVE reports that insurance group Liberty’s retrenchment claim statistics for 2020, released on Wednesday, give an indication of just how many people lost their jobs in the formal sector as a result of Covid-19.
In early 2020, Liberty was processing about 10 retrenchment claims a month, but five months after Covid-19 struck, that number had increased six-fold to more than 60 retrenchment claims a month. Its clients, mostly middle to high income earners, were considered to be less susceptible to job losses. “This trend was expected, given the harsh realities and subsequent effect on jobs because of the pandemic,” said Liberty's Kresantha Pillay. The most affected regions were Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. The insurer also had a 200% spike in death claims from the beginning of the hard lockdown in April 2020 — three times above “normal” levels. The claim statistics reflect only the effects of the first wave of Covid-19 in the middle of the year, Pillay pointed out. More than R500m was paid out by Liberty to cover confirmed Covid-related death and health-related claims, with death being the leading cause. Unsurprisingly, Covid-19 related funeral claims peaked during the first wave, with most claims coming from the Eastern Cape, Gauteng and the Free State. But the company said it probably paid out more than R575m in Covid-related claims, given that some Covid-19 deaths were recorded as natural causes.
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