SAACI, the Southern African Association for the Conference Industry, sent out an announcement on Friday 17 April about the COVID-19 UIF Temporary Employers Relief Scheme (TERS).
This agreement was signed by the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA), the Department of Labour and the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), and is intended to fast-track payments of benefits to employees affected by COVID-19 during South Africa’s national lockdown.
The Beneficiary Process for UIF TERS is as follows:
- Employee benefits will be paid for the duration of the national lockdown (this may be extended).
- The benefits will be paid directly to Employees or Employers.
- The UIF will take up to 48 hours to verify information after receiving each application.
- The UIF will take an additional 48 hours to disburse the COVID-19 benefit to Employees if the application is approved.
- The UIF will calculate the benefit as per the directive namely:
- 38%-60% in terms of income replacement sliding scale contained in the Act; or
- If the employee’s benefit determined in terms of the income replacement sliding scale falls below the minimum wage for the sector, employee will be paid a benefit equal to that minimum wage.
- The employees’ remuneration up to a maximum of R17,712.00 is taken into account in determining the benefit.
- All fully complaint applications will be completed and paid within 10 days (maximum).
Employers can submit claims on behalf of their employees. All submissions for UIF must be made HERE, in order for TBCSA to monitor progress.
To find out more about the UIF TERS, you can also access the SATSA webinar recording on this topic here.
