The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has conceded that its call centre is struggling to keep up with the number of enquiries related to COVID-19 claims.
Addressing the media in Pretoria the UIF’s chief director Advocate Mzwanele Yawa urged people to use other avenues when enquiring about the status of their UIF applications. This follows complaints of delays in UIF payments.
Yawa says despite the delays, the UIF has already paid R5.3 billion in benefits with a further R2.4 billion cleared for disbursement on Monday.
Yawa adds that the call centre is struggling because it is responding to the needs of all South Africans.
Website crashes
At the end of April the UIF website underwent technical repair after crashing due to an influx of visitors wanting to process and check COVID-19 claims. The UIF has further indicated that there are no set deadlines for COVID-19 benefit applications or any other claims.
This follows complaints by applicants saying they could not access the website.
In the video below, UIF commissioner Teboho Maruping explains the UIF claim process :
