UIF's Covid-19 Temporary Employee Relief Scheme assists over 800 000 workers
The chairperson of government's Economic Cluster says the Unemployment Insurance Fund has managed to assist over 800-thousand workers so far.
Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane gave the update at a Pretoria briefing earlier - on the socio-economic relief interventions.
She says the UIF's Covid-19 Temporary Employee Relief Scheme (Ters) has received 103 000 applications from employers, representing about 1,75 million employees.
As of today, the accumulative amount paid since the 27th of April is R3.3 billion.
Of the received applications the UIF as processed 59 000 employers' applications which means that more than 862 000 employees will receive their benefits.
About 10 000 applications could not be processed due to errors and the affected companies have been notified to correct the applications and resubmit.
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Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi says some 220 000 workers entitled to claim from the UIF haven't yet done so.
"We are working to contact those individuals. The reason for these numbers is due to some employers who have not stepped up to help their employees. We continue to appeal to them to help us. "
Nxesi says there are some companies that have been paid lump sums but aren't sure how to allocate the funding to employees.
He's again explained that the benefit from a claim amounts to only a portion of a worker's salary. "We are not paying the whole amount, we are paying 58% because it is a relief and we had budgeted for a period of three months and we will see what will happen after three months in relation to COVID-19."
