Durban - The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has reported a surge in public complaints regarding bogus employers alleged to have illegally used identity numbers to register with the fund and claimed for Covid-19 Ters benefit, and in some cases, unemployment benefits.
UIF Commissioner Teboho Maruping said that most of the complaints emerged when several people applied for the Social Relief of Distress Grant
R350 grant from the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) as their claims were declined since they were registered with the UIF.
“These are mainly learners/students that are recruited for ‘learnerships’ and their studies are allegedly sponsored for R3 500 which was never paid to the learners but ended up being labelled as their monthly salary when claiming UIF.”
Maruping said as part of the fund’s efforts to create employment opportunities and up skill young people, the UIF has several training programmes under the Labour Activation Programmes (LAP).
“Through LAP, we partner with training institutions who upskill the trainees in various fields such as hospitality, aviation, administration, agriculture, and security among others, leading to job opportunities. To support the trainees participating in the programme, the UIF provides a monthly stipend which should have no UIF deductions attached to it.”
Maruping said that subsequent to receiving these complaints, the Department of Employment and Labour’s provincial Risk Management Units launched investigations and has identified some of the bogus employers.
“The fund has introduced the payment verification process to check validity and existence of employees which will assist us in tracking down all the bogus employers.”
KwaZulu-Natal violence monitor Mary de Haas has called for an awareness drive on the dangers of identity theft and fraud.
De Haas suggested that there should be a drive to create awareness of how many crooked people there were out there wanting to take advantage of people’s desperation for money and jobs.
“There is a need to check on their legal status, and whether they are entitled to ask for confidential information in terms of the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).
“The POPIA act is a very long piece of legislation, and there needs to be a succinct summary, in different languages, easily available to people (eg at post offices, government offices such as Home Affairs, Sassa etc),” said De Haas.