The Unemployment Insurance Fund Covid-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme pay-outs were being delayed because some companies fraudulently claimed on behalf of dead people, the department of employment and labour said.It, however, promised beneficiaries that those with valid claims would receive disbursements even as the department began to wind down its “massive campaign of supporting workers”.
Glitches, unfortunately, resulted in late pay-outs, while some never received any payments at all. According to the department, the UIF entity paid out R31 billion in over 6.9 million payments. “ [Luckily] thorough vetting has picked up all these anomalies. We are following every cent paid out and will continue processing valid claims, but some claims cannot be processed for obvious reasons,” he said.
Maruping said the UIF checked ID numbers to prevent duplicate payments and also verified banking details in addition to measures such as password protection.