How to make the UIF work for workers
The new commissioner of the Unemployment Insurance Fund, Teboho Maruping, says non-compliant companies are largely to blame for delays in the payment of benefits
"Calculations about what benefits are owed depend on companies doing their paperwork properly and providing the UIF with the necessary information, which too many of them are not doing," said Maruping, who has been the chief director of operations since 2014 and acting commissioner of the UIF since September 2016. He was permanently appointed in the position last month. "You'll find someone is applying for maternity leave. But their company has never declared them at all. We spend too much time following up with the companies trying to get the details, because UIF is driven on contributions from employee and employer." If the UIF paid out benefits without this information, "we could easily exhaust our funds within two years", he said. "So we spend most of our time pursuing companies to give us the relevant details we need to determine how much they owe the UIF. We then give them a debt letter. Then they must pay what is owing, and only then can we process the claim. That's where mos...
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