The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has cautiously welcomed the extension of the COVID-19 Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme (TERS).
The President announced the move last night during his address to the nation.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said applications for March, April and May will close on September 25. Applications for June will close on October the 25th – and the ones for July to September the 15th will close on the 30th of October.
Cosatu General Secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali says there is still an immense backlog in terms of payments and that needs to be rectified.
“As of this morning it was not cleared they were reporting that other agencies has now done their verification but there was one leg that of government that needed to clear the names and the identity documents were required but we hope that very soon they should be able to process the application.”
“We are very worried that of course there are those that submitted in April and they still have not been resolved so we hope that all the applications will be processed quickly. Workers have been waiting for too long to be able to get an income replacement and that is not acceptable.”
President Ramaphosa reiterated that the COVID-19 Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) benefits will assist unemployed people until the end of the national state of disaster.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address to the nation:
The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has said it is still receiving new TERS applications.
Meanwhile in August, Labour and Employment Minister Thulas Nxesi said there were many employers who have received Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) payments but have not paid their employees.
Nxesi gave the undertaking that those who have not yet been paid will get their money.
UIF resumes payment of Ters benefits
The UIF announced that it has resumed payment of its COVID-19 temporary employer/employee relief scheme benefits after payments were temporarily suspended.
UIF Commissioner Tebogo Maruping has said they felt that it was important to pause the system on the TERS as an assurance process took place within the organisation.
The process involves management assurance, risk management, internal auditor, and finally the Auditor-General having a look at the system to check if there are any discrepancies in payments to beneficiaries.
Maruping says a report on the system is yet to be released:
