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The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has extended the processing of new claims for benefits from the Temporary Assistance Plan for Employees / Employers (TERS) from April to September following consultations with Nedlac’s social partners.
TERS applies to employers who are struggling and unable to pay wages due to closure. The payments are part of a government-wide response to ease the burden of the pandemic and ensure that, to the extent possible, workers are not harmed by the shutdown.
In a statement on Tuesday (September 15), the FIU said the new dates are as follows:
- Covid-19 TERS benefit applications for March 2020 to May 2020 will close on September 25, 2020
- Covid-19 TERS benefit applications for June 2020 will close on October 15, 2020,
- Covid-19 TERS benefit applications for July through September 15, 2020 will close on October 30, 2020.
The FIU said that no further applications will be accepted for this period beyond the specified dates. She added that the closing dates will not affect claims that have already been submitted, as they will be processed and paid once the pending information is finally delivered to the fund.
“Currently, payments are still on hold as the fund is still working with the Department of Internal Affairs and other government databases to verify around 5 million identity documents from Covid-19 TERS applications. This is done to ensure that payments are made to genuine and deserving workers. “
An announcement will be made in due course on when the Fund will resume payments, the fund said.
“We are aware of the negative impact that this delay has caused and is causing. But in order to mitigate the risks that have been identified by both our Risk Unit and the auditor general, we unfortunately have to pause payments. As soon as we are comfortable with the measures taken, we will announce to the country the resumption of payments, ”said Marsha Bronkhorst, acting commissioner of the FIU.
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