UIF Payments Extended To August
In what is good news for many South Africans, the government has extended the Covid-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) until the middle of August.
This was announced on Tuesday by deputy minister of employment and labour Boitumelo Moloi.
Government and the UIF had previously announced that payments would stop after June.
Workers who are put on leave, have been laid off temporarily, or whose employers cannot afford to pay their full salaries due to the coronavirus crisis were entitled to payouts in April, May and June.
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Moloi said, “Following due diligence and consultation with the Unemployment Insurance Fund actuaries, and in line with the President’s decision to extend the life of the Disaster Management Act until 15th August, we have taken the decision to similarly extend the Covid-19 Ters benefit until 15th August 2020.”
Moloi added that the department is considering closing the April, May and June applications at the end of July 2020. So far, the UIF paid out R31 billion in 6.9 million payments.
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Workers have been paid R6,730 a month (if you earn more than R17,700) while the minimum amount is R3,500.
UIF has been criticised on how it has handled the TERS payouts with companies citing applications that have not been processed or paid, to some applications being denied without explanation and a general failure to get a response from the department.
A survey among the 10,000 members of the National Employers Association of South Africa (NEASA) showed that 88% of companies still haven’t received TERS payments for June. Of the companies which did get money, only 68% were paid in full.
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