UIF aims to get unemployed their benefits within a day

Acting commissioner Judith Kumbi made a bold statement on Thursday when she told employers that the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) was working towards paying out benefits within a day.

Speaking at a seminar in Sandton‚ Kumbi told about 500 delegates that the turnaround time of paying unemployment benefits was previously a month before it changed to 15 days.

“We will review the current turnaround time of paying within 15 days because it would be ideal for workers who lose their jobs to receive their UIF money within a day‚” said Kumbi.

She told employers that the turnaround time for other benefits like maternity‚ illness‚ death and adoption for workers who qualify would also be reviewed.

The turnaround time and application process‚ which includes queuing for hours in some labour department offices‚ are what most recently unemployed South Africans complain about.

The fund paid out R2.7bn in benefits for the first quarter of this year.

Kumbi said most of the claims came from the construction and hospitality sectors.

She also revealed that there were 1.8-million employers and 8-million workers on the fund's database‚ which demonstrated that companies were still not registering their staff.

She called on workers to report their bosses — even anonymously — to allow the labour department to take action against errant employers.