Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi says the UIF is going to be severely tested.

Nxesi also anticipates there will be greater reliance on the state to deal with employment insecurity.

“I can confirm this morning, that we have paid R9.4-billion to 123,000 companies and this has gone to 1.6-million employees to date and this is just for COVID-19 only,” UIF Commissioner Teboho Maruping.

Maruping said the UIF has paid R1.3-billion to 123,000 employees in normal benefits.

How to check if your company has been paid?

The UIF has also updated its online portal for employees to check if the UIF has paid the company.

“There is a list of all the companies that we have paid. So you can pull out the list and you can see your company. If you have your company's UIF reference number, you can go to the status tab and put the UIF reference number of the company, it will show you how much we have paid for the company and when and the date that we have paid,” Maruping said.

In addition, the UIF has a temporary employer/employee relief scheme for companies in distress.

This is for companies that have a turnaround plan in the next 12 months.

“In those instances, we assist the company with the salary relief and also turnaround solutions plus in some instances, we assist you with training programme should a need arise that you need to train employees into a new business model,” he said.
 

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