Officials of the Department of Employment and Labour are in Polokwane, Limpopo, to help citizens with Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) applications and processing of claims for workers.

“Officials are continuing with assisting clients, who are flocking to Nirvana Hall, to apply for UIF and Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Disease, as well as registering work-seekers on the Employment Services of South Africa (ESSA) database for possible employment opportunities.

“On the first day of the campaign, we captured 347 claims but encountered challenges with UI-19 forms that were incorrectly filled,” said the department’s Director of Beneficiary Services in Limpopo, Vuledzani Mulindi, on Thursday.

As the department’s open day and ‘Taking services to the people’ campaign entered its second day in the city, Mulindi said departmental officials have since met with the Department of Basic Education’s Programme Manager to come up with solutions to ensure that former teacher assistants around Limpopo are correctly declared for UIF.

“We, [along with Basic Education], are going to have open day sessions meant for teacher assistants, so they can rectify any challenges experienced with regard to incorrectly filled UI-19 forms,” he said.

Mulindi urged employers to attend these sessions in their numbers.

“We are making a call to employers… to utilise the u-Filing system to register employees for Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Disease, as well as the Unemployment Insurance Fund.”

He encouraged employers to not only register workers, but to also take further steps to pay contributions and declare workers on a monthly basis, as required by law.

“It remains the responsibility of an employer, after termination of service of a worker, to ensure that worker information is updated on a monthly basis to show the current status and employment history.

“Failure to submit the declaration may cause delays with the processing of claims for unemployment or other benefits,” Mulindi said.

The last session of the campaign is currently underway and is set to conclude in the afternoon.

The department will announce in due course the open day sessions, which will cover all the 10 districts in Limpopo.

Source: South African Government News Agency