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Mail & Guardian reports that employers and officials who defrauded the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) of millions of rands by submitting falsified claims under the Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme (Ters) during the Covid-19 pandemic face the full might of the law and being forced to pay back the money.
UIF commissioner Teboho Maruping updated the media last week on the latest payment figures, fraud statistics and criminal cases opened by the fund during its “follow the money” campaign to uncover fraud, arrest perpetrators and reclaim stolen funds over the 2022/23 financial year. He said the fund was processing claims for Ters and workers affected by the unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng in July 2021. In some cases, employers had received benefits but had not paid these to workers, while ghost claims had also been uncovered. According to Maruping, the UIF had paid out Ters benefits totalling R64 billion since 2020. Most of these payments went to businesses and workers in Gauteng (49%), followed by the Western Cape (18%) and KZN (14%). “KZN did not take the lion’s share, but they did take the lion’s share of the fraud cases and for us that is concerning. Most cases of fraud seem to find their way to this province. We have 27 cases in court,” Maruping reported. He indicated that the fund was working closely with the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), the Asset Forfeiture Unit’s (AFU) Fusion Centre and the Hawks to investigate and clamp down on fraud. A total of 132 cases related to Covid-19 Ters nationally had been referred for criminal investigation and prosecution as at 31 March 2023.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Lyse Comins at Mail & Guardian (subscriber access only)
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