The UIF delayed payments are as a result of some of the issues that were going on in the platform. There was a lot of verification process during that time and the payouts were having a significant drop. There are so many factors that will cause UIF delayed payments and some of the issues are always related to documents and others.

UIF Delayed Payments

UIF delayed payments are caused by so many reasons and it might be because of your documents and a whole lots of other things. During 2022, there were some fraud issues and statements that were coming up and this is due to the re-introduction of the internal control measures, these acts have caused delays, understandably to the annoyance of deserving beneficiaries.

Since the beginning of June, there has been a significant drop in daily payouts, from about R90 million to around R50 million, due to the verification process we have started. As the country grappled with hemorrhaging jobs in most industries during the level 5 and 4 lockdown periods the Fund loosened some of its internal control measures to enable beneficiaries already receiving UIF benefits easy access to their payments.

Normally, UIF beneficiaries who receive benefits every month are required to complete the UI.6A form or Payment of Continuation as means to confirm that they are still unemployed, therefore should continue receiving the benefits.

The fund was introduced to help people in times of need and during the lockdown, this came into great effect. There were lots of payments that were made during the lockdown as lots of persons became unemployed, and many companies had to lay down lots of staff and workers to make sure that they were still able to operate.

Some claims were noticed in the UIF where some amounts were being paid monthly, they are quickly processed and paid, the claims were having no source documents and some persons were being paid within this period. This sparked lots of issues from the UIF and this is why they had to delay lots of payments and pause to be able to restructure and organize to know what is happening. Many corrupt activities were taking place during this period and some officials were being sacked from the UIF and were a partaker of these fraud-related issues.

There were so many processed claims in the UIF during 2022 and then all processed claims with huge amounts will have to receive verifications before they can be paid into the beneficiary account. There were many measures taken that will lessen the corrupt activities that were taking place in the system.

This process was introduced in June 2022 and they have been able to monitor the distribution of funds and they have been able to investigate more than 30 payments during that time. These are some of the reasons that one can have issues with delayed payments in the system.

The UIF has issued a statement claiming and knowing about all of these issues and they have been able to put several methods on how to curb them. The issue of delayed payments is what the beneficiaries have to bear due to the ongoing investigation that has been taking place and making sure the funds get to the right owners.

Many beneficiaries of the UIF have been able to come out to complain and some of them have written several emails and even made phone calls to the labour department still nothing yet, they are trying to make sure that the issue is being resolved and it is properly fixed so you can receive payments in a short period.

Official Statement from the UIF

The Standing Committee on Public Accounts convened in a virtual meeting to receive a briefing from the Commissioners of the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and Compensation Fund (CF) on the progress with the implementation of corrective measures at the two funds.

The Compensation Fund said that the Director-General had approved a clean audit action plan on 11 August to address the root causes of the various audit findings by implementing specific controls. The Fund’s management has implemented this action plan over the last 12 months, with a dedicated team providing coordination and monitoring support.

A major financial consulting firm had been appointed in March for 18 months to diagnose the organisational architecture of the UIF and the CF, as well as the offices of the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases. The UIF provincial offices and labour centres focus mainly on the two funds’ work.

The UIF has been able to implement corrective measures that will help in curbing the issue of fraud and making sure that all delayed payments have been resolved totally. They have been able to place capable persons that will work for hand in hand with the labour government to make sure that every issue is resolved. There are certain things which you can do to avoid delays to the UIF claim which are;

• Does your UI.2.8 corresponds with your details on uFiling?
• If you are married are you using an updated ID
• Only submit a continuation of benefit when your claim has been approved
• Complete a UI.6A to the department of labour and you are to tag along three months’ banking statements and your last three months’ payslips.
• You will need to follow up on every process as well to make sure that you can receive your claim on time and that your benefit will not be delayed. You should be able to provide all supportive documents that are needed as you will be asked some questions and verify some details about yourself.

Closing

The delayed payments (2022) had issues during the lockdown period and you should understand that they are working tirelessly round the clock to put an end to the fraud issue that was taking place which affected lots of payments in the platform. The UIF has issued a statement and made sure that every person involved is being put behind bars.