At least 1 402 workers have already benefitted from the Workers Affected By Unrest (WABU) Relief Scheme that has so far paid up to R6.4 million to those affected by the July unrest in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
The payments were made by the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) from applications received after stringent criteria involving checking if workers have been registered and declared with the UIF, monthly contributions are up to date, as well as physical inspections of affected businesses.
UIF Acting Commissioner, Advocate Mzie Yawa, said since the opening of the application process in August, the UIF has received applications from 500 employees on behalf of close to 16 000 workers. “From the 500 employer applications received, we have paid 1 402 workers, which is not a great number considering that 16 000 workers have applied. We are, however, not worried about the seemingly low number because it shows the robustness of our verification process, which ensures that only those who meet our standards are up for payment.”
Due to hard lessons learned from Covid-19 TERS payments, the UIF has had to vigilantly carry out due diligence and thorough verification before making any payments. Already the fund has identified several WABU claims that have been submitted to other insurance companies where salaries are covered, some applied for and shall get help from the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) which also covers salaries in the intervention.
Yet some of these employers still applied for UIF’s WABU benefit. “We have also noted that some employers have used false SAPS case numbers and luckily our system can pick up thorough checks that the cases are not genuine. We urge all to act honestly, these are hard-earned monies for vulnerable workers, not get-rich-quick schemes,” said Yawa.
Some of the claims have been rejected because they have failed to meet the basic minimum requirements such as correct identity numbers, correct banking details, no UIF declarations and no UIF contributions found.
