What’s happening with relief payments? Scorpion Legal Protection explains what the Employment and Labour Ministry has said, what’s changed, and how to apply.
It has been announced that the Covid19 TERS benefit will be extended to 15 August 2020. The benefit structure and existing criteria will remain the same. The department is looking at closing the April, May and June applications at the end of July 2020, but all valid applications already received for these months will be processed. As a measure to help prevent the fraud that has been taking place, the Department of Employment and Labour has introduced new, stricter controls to verify banking details.
Part of the delay in getting relief payments to those claiming is due to the fraud that has been taking place. The department explained that it has had to deal with companies who tried to claim on behalf of people who are deceased, or using fraudulent or non-existent ID numbers.
The department also explained that many employees have not been registered with the UIF, which means that they first have to verify that the employee exists with SARS. According to the Unemployment Insurance Act, employers must declare all their employees, and must pay over UIF contributions for these employees. When employers make claims for TERS funding, they must be able to prove that the employees actually work for them. Also important to note is that the regulations were clear from the beginning that any company looking to claim must have been registered for UIF before 15 March 2020. If a company registered after this date, they do not qualify for TERS funding.
Double claiming of benefits has also caused issues. If you are receiving other UIF payments, for example for maternity leave, you cannot also claim for TERS funding. “We could not and still cannot pay in the cases of double dipping and we made this very clear at the beginning,” UIF Commissioner Teboho Maruping said.
The Fund will continue to process those claims that are in the system. However, the extra vetting means that instead of paying in 24 hours, the minimum time now is 48 hours.
What if you qualify for Covid-19 TERS relief but your employer is not applying on your behalf? You can apply for the benefit yourself as long as you meet the requirements in terms of the directive; no bargaining council or other forum that you belong to or fall under has already made an agreement with the UIF; and your employer has failed or refused to apply for Covid19 benefits. To apply, you need to go to https://uifecc.labour.gov.za/covid19/covid19 and follow the instructions on the website. They will require you to fill out certain forms and provide certain information to them so that they can process your application.
Tips
- The Covid19 TERS benefit has been extended to 15 August 2020.
- If your employer refuses to apply for the benefit for employees, you can apply for yourself online (as long as you meet the requirements).
IF YOU HAVE A QUERY, FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK AND ASK YOUR QUESTION DURING OUR NEXT LIVE Q&A (THE FIRST THURSDAY OF EVERY MONTH).
* This is only basic advice and cannot be relied on solely. The information is correct at the time of being sent to publishing.