The Minister of Employment and Labour Thulas Nxesi has called on employers who are registered with the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) to apply for the COVID-19 benefits through the temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme on behalf of their employees.
He says to date, the UIF has received just over 55 268 applications from employers representing 1 601 767 employees.
Nxesi says the cumulative amount paid from the 16th of April to date is R1.1 billion.
System under pressure
Minister Nxesi says UIF is working around the clock to meet the extraordinary volumes of requests and acknowledged that the system is under pressure as it was not designed to accommodate the additional capacity.
He says the department is in discussion with other public entities and the private sector to build additional capacity to fast track the processing of applications.
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has also come on board and will help to resolve the backlog.
Errors
Minister Nxesi says 9 938 applications could not be processed due to errors and affected companies have been notified.
He says some of the errors include incorrect banking details which makes it impossible to process payments.
Of the received applications, the UIF has processed 37 673 employer applications which means that 606 462 employees will receive their benefit.
In total, the UIF has over 1 800 000 employers registered on its database representing more than 8-million workers.
Call centre
The department has increased the number of agents manning the toll-free number to 200 and will add more if the need arises.
The number is 0800 030 007
Employers can apply via www.ufiling.co.za
