Business Unity SA (BUSA) wants to put the South African UIF under administration. In the same vein as the South African Social Security Agency, the country’s Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) is a social security endowment generated from payroll tax that provides unemployment and maternity benefits to workers.
UIF comes off every month from (reputably) employed persons’ pay cheques. And it is there as a safety net should you become injured or retrenched in your job. It’s not charity, it is your money that you earned during your job. However, so far in 2024, the UIF’s online services – including uFiling, UIF USSD services and UIF Mobile App – have been offline more often than not. This has caused untold frustration and hardship for the country’s vulnerable unemployed residents.
SOUTH AFRICAN UIF UNDER ADMINISTRATION
Following weeks of frustration and inoperability, UIF services did reportedly go back online on Thursday 17 October 2024. And the UIF says it extended its operating hours and opened additional service points on Saturdays in September 2024 to handle the increased demand for services while the online platform was suspended.
Nevertheless, it’s too little too late cries BUSA, which wants to see the South African UIF under administration immediately. In 2022, UIF paid out more than R1 billion in benefits to nearly a quarter-of-a-million retrenched persons. However, BUSA says that due to ‘systemic dysfunction, corruption, and ineptitude, it wants to see the South African UIF under administration.
BUSA’S MISTRUST OF ECOMPLIANCE
According to a BUSA statement: “It is clear the current management within the South African UIF is unwilling or unable to execute their mandate. It has embarked on an ill-considered system – eCompliance – which has failed and introduced massive risk in the business landscape. This is both for companies seeking assurance about the compliance of their providers and for the protection of workers,” said BUSA.
The UIF’s eCompliance system was introduced more than three-years ago, back in January 2021. Its goal is to digitise manual processes and make lives easier for applicants and UIF staff. However, it has been widely criticised for its faults that have resulted in weeks, if not months, of downtime. “Failure to address systemic issues will only result in greater financial losses that could impact the sustainability of the fund,” BUSA concluded.
Last year, the Minister of Labour and Employment Thulas Nxesi had the indignity of informing parliament – for the second year running – that the department could not submit its annual financial statements on time. BUSA has reached out to government repeatedly, asking for South African UIF under administration.
WHAT IS YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH UIF?
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