The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has urged business employers with outstanding claims in relation to the Covid-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) to correct errors on the system so that payouts can begin.
Correcting these errors would enable the Fund to pay the claims immediately after validation and security checks have been conducted.
Thomas Shivuri, of the UIF's Operations Unit, revealed that although Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted and most people are back at work, there are still unpaid TERS claims within the Fund's system, dating back to the previous year.
"As the UIF, we are imploring all employers with unpaid claims to log into the Covid-19 TERS portal on the UIF-COVID-19 TERS National Disaster Application System, check the solution and rectify the error so we can process and pay the claim once it passes our validation and security checks," said Shuviri.
According to the UIF, these errors are preventing payouts to employees who qualify.
Some of these errors include:
- Incorrect identity and passport numbers
- Failed bank verifications
- No declaration
- Salary discrepancies
- Applications for deceased employees
- Applications for public servants
Employers who also unjustly received money for the Covid-19 TERS were warned to refund the UIF before the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and the HAWKS came knocking.
The KwaZulu-Natal province saw 12 employers arrested on fraud charges in relation to unjust Covid-19 TERS claims, along with the recovery of R10 million from employers who improperly benefitted.
