According to UIF, fake employers claim the interests of Covid-19 TERS and, in some cases, the interests of unemployment.
This is after people applied for the R350 Social Relief Distress Grant (SRD) from the South Africa Social Security (SASSA) where the system detected that the person was registered for 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,” said UIF commissioner Teboho Maruping.
After receiving these complaints, the Department of Employment and Labour Provincial Risk Management units have begun several investigations and has already identified some fake employers.
“However, the fund is not at this stage able to mention them as investigations are still under way, but we can mention that some of these companies are in KwaZulu-Natal and others around the country. Furthermore, 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,” said Maruping.
The fund states that the second phase of the Covid-19 TERS Follow the Money project will begin this month and employers who mis declare employees will be prioritized under the project.
Maruping added that the contracted auditing company will carry out an end-to-end auditing process for all employees of the company’s salary for all of the company’s UIF claims. Companies found to be fraudulent in UIF will be reported to law enforcement and criminal proceedings will begin at SAPS.
Fraudulent activity can be reported at the nearest labour centre, or Fraud@labour.gov.za, or call the National Anti-Corruption Hotline on 0800 701 701.
By Palesa Bacwadi
