WORKERS in the province of Limpopo who failed to receive their Covid-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) payments could be soon smiling all the way to the bank.
That is if the decision by the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF)’s confirmation that they are in the process of reviewing previously rejected employer applications in order to pay them out is anything to go by.
This was revealed by Director: Provincial Support Allan Ragavaloo (Pictured) during a media briefing held at Bolivia Lodge in Polokwane on Tuesday, October 31, Director:, to apprise communities of the Fund’s performance in the provi rejections were employer non-declarations, invalid banking details, incorrect income, identity or passport numbers that cannot be verified, sector appeals, and risk factors that were identified by the UIF system.
“The UIF is still paying out Covid-19 TERS applications and will continue to do so until all competent applications are processed. I wish to advise though that we are not taking on any new applications. The Covid-19 TERS applications that were previously rejected are currently being reviewed. We will communicate with employers and employees to give guidance and to allow them an opportunity to make right what has caused delays to their applications. Only once an application has met all UIF qualifying factors, then payouts will be effected,” said Ragavaloo.
He said since the inception of Covid-19 TERS, over R16 billion has been disbursed to 477199 employers and employees in Limpopo Province.
The top ten sectors in the province that benefitted from Covid-19 TERS are Personal Services, Trade,
Mining, Building, Personal Services, Agriculture, Educational Services, Iron, Air, and Food sectors.
“Alongside every application we’ve received, processed and paid out we run the ‘Follow the Money’ auditing project which is aimed to ensure that all monies are properly accounted for. We want to be sure that monies we paid out for employees actually reached them in full amounts. Our Covid-19 relief scheme was not set up to compensate employers or to cover business operational expenses. It was and remains for loss of employee income,” stressed Ragavaloo.
Smiso Nkosi, a manager in the Office of the UIF Commissioner said the objective of the ‘Follow the money project’ is not to recover monies but to ensure that the funds reached the intended beneficiaries at the right time; and that the funds were not abused or misused by employers.
“Even if its three years later, we still want those funds to reach the employees. Through the Follow the Money process we discovered that the UIF did not pay wrong people. It was the employers and the fraudsters who came to the UIF and who falsified information in their applications. We have since appointed seven auditing companies to help us follow that money,” said Nkosi.
Nkosi said for phase one of the “Follow the Money Project the UIF audited and verified R14 billion.
Another R14 billion was verified in the second phase of the project, resulting in a total of R28 billion that has been verified to date.
“We have verified nearly half of the R64 billion that was paid out as Covid-19 TERS funds. This is how fast we are moving, and we have a deadline of 31 March 2024 which is by when we want to be done with all verifications to determine whether we have paid the correct and intended beneficiaries,” said Nkosi.
Of the phase one audit Nkosi said that it was found that only R11 billion had reached their intended recipients, which indicates that at least R3 billion has not yet been paid out to employees and are still in employer bank accounts.
He said in Limpopo province 197 companies that received Covid-19 TERS monies were audited, and of these six have been flagged for suspected fraud. Four of them are currently under investigation.
Limpopo province ranks second highest in terms of the monetary value of suspected Covid-19 TERS fraud cases in the country. The UIF has found that there was a trend in the province where redundant companies that were no longer operating were used by fraudsters who used ID numbers that were obtained from either a database of people who used to be employed as part of the Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP), access control registers from various places or from scams where people were promised jobs in return for submission of their ID numbers.
Employers and employees who have not yet received their Covid-19 TERS payments can utilise the
ufiling platform www.ufiling.co.za/folowthemoney to effect corrections to their applications. They can also contact the UIF through WhatsApp number: 067 411 0240 to enquire about and get assistance with their applications.
