Employers submitting false UIF claims, warns committee

Parliament’s employment and labour portfolio committee has told the Department of Employment and Labour to be wary of businesses which are fraudulently submitting claims to the Unemployed Insurance Fund (UIF).

The committee, together with the Select Committee on Trade and Industry, Economic Development, Small Business, Tourism, Employment and Labour, held a follow-up virtual meeting on Friday, 1 May 2020.

The entities involved were the UIF, the Compensation Fund (CF), and the Inspection and Enforcement Services assisting workers during the coronavirus (Covid-19) lockdown period, said committee chairperson Lindelwa Dunjwa.

R4 billion paid by UIF for COVID-19 relief

The department told the committee that R4 billion had been paid out so far during the lockdown period, covering over a million workers. Applications were received from 137 386 employers. The committee heard that applications from 750 employers for 8958 employees had failed bank verification.

Dunjwa has called on the department to deal with employers who seek to exploit the UIF system by submitting fraudulent claims.

“This kind of fraud is unacceptable; the department and the UIF need to be vigilant and alert the law enforcement agencies without hesitation on suspicious claims,” she said.

“Employers have no reason to submit fraudulent and false claims. The country is dealing with a matter of life and death. The department needs to look at the matters involving vulnerable workers like the domestic workers and petrol attendants.”

She said some employers may overlook issues of compliance and these needed to be addressed. The committee “appreciated the employers who played an active role and made use of the interventions availed by the government for their employees”.

No deadline reached on relief claims

The Employment and Labour Department’s website has received a lot of traffic, presumably due to claims that the deadline to file for relief is near, which it says are not true.

“We would like to make it clear that we have not reached the deadline yet. The period will depend on the Memorandum of Understanding signed, but it shall not exceed 3 months, which is the period given for the Covid-19 TERS relief benefit”, said Director-General Thobile Lamati.

This means that in all intents and purposes, employers should continue applying for lockdown relief benefits for the foreseeable future until the department indicates otherwise.

The Fund has also improved the functionality of the online system to enable employers, employees and organised labour to be able to see which companies have been paid.

“In the past, the UIF received a number of queries where workers have been unable to determine if their companies have applied for and or received payment on their behalf from the Department of Employment and Labour COVID-19 TERS”, said Lamati.