The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has come under fire in Parliament for delaying payments to workers who became unemployed or are unable to work.
The Fund is said to be plagued by persistent service delivery challenges, payment delays, and limited accessibility for vulnerable workers, which exacerbates the hardships experienced by those it is meant to protect.
MPs say the UIF is failing workers who become unemployed or are unable to work due to, among other reasons, illness or maternity. The Fund briefed the Select Committee on Economic Development and Trade on its budget and strategic plan, as well as its annual performance plan.
MPs were livid that it currently takes about two to four weeks for payments to be processed.
“What’s stopping you from having that period of two weeks turned to 48 hours, because that must be the goal for our people. 48 hours turnaround period after a valid submission,” says DA MP Nicolaas Pienaar.
The Fund not only provides relief to workers who become unemployed or are unable to work, but is also mandated to provide support to dependents of deceased contributors.
Parliamentarians are concerned, saying there is no concrete plan to turn things around.
“The only issue that it’s having now is that you are acknowledging your mistake or challenges. It doesn’t fix your mistakes, but at least when you say that this is our challenge. But our plans to fix this are this and that it will be better that way, the issues of our people getting their UIF money late,” says ANC MP Losea Sithole.
The Fund says its outdated system, which is mostly manual, needs to be digitised. It says it has also supported employees of the South African Post Office, which has been placed under business rescue.
“In terms of SAPO, we have managed to give them assistance, they applied through the RT system the CCMA did the adjudication, it was submitted to the UIF and we’ve assessed and that money was disbursed the contract was signed between ourselves and SAPO and we are now going to be submitting invoices for money to be paid,” says Jacky Molisane, Acting DG of the Department of Employment and Labour.
The Fund also took flak for failing to submit annual financial statements for auditing purposes, as well as underspending by R8 billion in the previous financial year for its labour activation programme.
