[ad_1]
September 15, 2020
By Joon Chong and Shane Johnson
JOHANNESBURG – The Minister of Employment and Labor announced the extension of the benefits of the Temporary Assistance Plan for Employers and Employees (TERS) of Covid-19 until the end of the national state of disaster.
This announcement was confirmed in a notice published in the official gazette.
This is an encouraging announcement, however the Department of Employment and Labor (DEL) has yet to confirm whether it will be able to fund such an extension.
The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) will continue to receive new TERS applications for the periods from March to September 2020. The new closing dates are as follows:
The FIU will not accept applications for these periods after this date.
No further applications will be accepted for these application months after the corresponding closing dates.
The extension of Covid-19 TERS benefits follows the release of a report on TERS by the Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA). The report deals with the AGSA findings on the audited TERS claims for April and May amounting to R28 billion.
The report’s findings point to a lack of verification and controls in the processing of TERS claims.
The findings of the AGSA report, as reported by the media, reveal that:
More than R140 million paid to applicants who had already received benefits from other state institutions (for example, students who received stipends from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme)
- More than R10m in overpayments based on incorrect calculations used in early versions of the TERS system
- About R 685 million paid to foreigners whose employers had not paid FIU contributions in the past 12 months
- Almost R170,000 paid to persons reported to be in prison
- More than R400,000 paid to deceased persons
- Over 30 million rand paid to employees with invalid ID numbers
- Approximately rand 200,000 paid to employees below the legal working age of 15 years
- After the report, TERS payments for new and pending applications are temporarily suspended. Senior officials (including Commissioner Teboho Maruping) of the FIU have also been suspended. DEL has attached its COO, Marsha Bronkhorst, to the FIU as acting commissioner.
The temporary suspension is in place to help the DEL and the FIU address relevant concerns and ensure that proper controls are in place before further TERS payments are made.
Joon Chong is a partner and Shane Johnson is a professional support attorney at Webber Wentzel.
ONLINE BUSINESS REPORT
[ad_2]
