Employment and Labours’ unemployment insurance fund on a service delivery drive
The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) will from today, 11 April 2022 to 06 May 2022 commence on a service delivery drive in the Eastern Cape Province utilising its fully-equipped bus that is installed with state of the art computers to service clients and process UIF claims and benefits on the spot.
Most employers were hit hard since the advent of COVID-19 pandemic and could not operate on a full scale which caused them to retrench or put their employees on reduced work time. Since then the number of UIF enquiries grew drastically and resulted in snaking queues in Labour Centres.
Moreover, there has been a notable outcry and information gap of Employment and Labour services in remote areas in particular the UIF processing which has led to the Department employing innovations such as a rapid response to the needs on the ground.
The Department currently has 16 Labour Centres, 5 Satellite Offices opened 5 days a week and 79 Visiting Points visited either once or twice a week/month as per need. Evidence shows that this was not enough as there is a dire need of services especially in rural areas and outskirts of the Province thus the bus will be focusing on these areas to ensure that disadvantaged clients benefit from Employment and Labour services.
“Employment and Labour Department strives to continuously bring services closer to the people to address bottlenecks affecting service delivery. With the availability of the UIF-Bus in the province, access to Employment and Labour services is guaranteed and this will assist in bringing temporary relief as pending claims and enquiries will be resolved on the spot resulting in improved quality of life of our clients”, said Chief Director: Provincial Operations, Ms Nomfundo Douw-Jack.
The Unemployment Insurance Fund contributes to the alleviation of poverty in South Africa by providing short-term relief through unemployment insurance benefits to all workers who qualify for such benefits. Its core services are registration of UIF claims:- ordinary unemployment benefits, in-service benefits (Illness, Maternity, Adoption, Commission Parental – surrogate) and deceased benefits.
Source: Government of South Africa