Ters benefit extended until state of disaster ends

The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has announced the extension of the Covid-19 Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme (Ters) benefit until the end of the National State of Disaster on October 15, and has supplied new closing dates.

The fund said on Tuesday the new closing dates will not affect claims that have already been submitted; these will be processed and paid once the outstanding information is submitted.

The new dates are as follows:

• Applications for March, April and May will close on September 25;
• Applications for June will close on October 25; and
• Applications for July to September 15 will close on October 30.

The UIF’s Ters portal has been offline since last weeekend as it strives to tighten its system after the Auditor-General found that it was failing to sufficiently corroborate information supplied by applicants.

The fund is yet to announce when payments will resume.

Acting UIF Commissioner Marsha Bronkhorst said she is aware of the inconvenience this is causing.

“We are aware of the negative impact this delay has caused and is causing. But in the interests of mitigating the risks which have been identified both by our Risk Unit and the Auditor-General, we unfortunately have to pause payments. As soon as we have a sense of comfort with the steps taken, we will announce to the country the resumption of payments,” Bronkhorst said.

The Department of Labour noted that no further applications for the listed periods will be accepted beyond those dates.