Covid Advisory: How UIF can assist with your salary cuts

02 April 2020 674
Did you know that the Unemployment Insurance Fund can assist your employees that may be affected by salary cuts or retrenchments due to the COVID-19 national lockdown?
 
Government has introduced the Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme (COVID19TERS) to help such affected employees. We briefly outline how you can assist your affected employees using this relief.

Given the current uncertainty in the media about how to claim from the UIF, we went straight to the source and made contact with the UIF directly. We have been informed by the UIF that the following procedure should be followed by employers:

  • Due to a high volume of individual claims anticipated to be lodged, the UIF prefers that employers lodge the necessary claims on behalf of ALL their employees that will be affected by salary reductions.
  • The UIF will then pay out the claims in a lump sum to the employer, for further distribution to the affected employees.
  • It is currently unclear whether there are any restrictions on the categories of employees that may claim. Therefore, claims may for now be submitted for all affected employees, including directors and senior managers that receive salaries and are affected.
The timeframe for payment by the UIF, once claims have been submitted, for the moment remains unclear. 

In terms of COVID19TERS relief programme, the benefits that may be claimed will be capped between 38% - 60% of the maximum of R17,712.00 per month per affected employee, and these employees will be paid in terms of the income replacement rate sliding scale contained in the Unemployment Insurance Act. The minimum amount payable will be equal to the minimum wage for each specific business sector.
 
The UIF has provided a dedicated helpline to assist all employers and other parties that wish to claim under this programme. The contact number is 012 337 1997.

For the moment at by date of publication, this is the information we have obtained. We will keep you updated should any further relevant information come to our attention.

Although we have used our best efforts to ensure that all information contained in this communication is accurate as at the date hereof, we cannot guarantee the accuracy thereof and recommend verification thereof before use.
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