The Unemployment Insurance Fund’s (UIF) campaign of paying former Teaching and General Assistants is currently proceeding to the uMgungundlovu District in KwaZulu-Natal after disbursing R25.1 million in the Zululand District.
The campaign started on Monday and will conclude on 27 January 2023.
The campaign resumed two weeks ago in the Zululand District where it processed and paid out R25.1 million to 5886 beneficiaries from 9-20 January 2023.
The UIF started the campaign in November 2022 in the Amajuba District where the Fund paid out R7.7 million to 1746 former Educator Assistants and General Assistants.
It proceeded to eThekwini and Pinetown in December 2022 where R28.8 million was paid out to 6204 beneficiaries.
According to the department, to date, a cumulative R76.2 million has been paid out to 17 095 beneficiaries who were employed in the aforementioned Districts.
“From 23-27 January 2023, the Fund will pay out valid claims to former workers who were employed within the uMgungundlovu District. The venue for the activity will be Linpark High School, which is situated at 2 Claude Forsyth Road in Boughton, Pietermaritzburg.
“Clients who wish to lodge their benefit claims are urged to bring along their identity or Passport documents, a fully charged smartphone with data, a black pen and proof of valid banking details,” the department said.
To increase the employment prospects of the former Teaching and General Assistants, the Department’s Public Employment Services (PES) branch will be present on site to register the CV’s of unemployed clients on the Employment Services of South Africa (ESSA) system, which is available on https://essa.labour.gov.za/EssaOnline/WebBeans/ for possible jobs.
The department added that this service has been a standard feature of the campaign since it started.
The former Teaching and General Assistants were employed as part of the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative (PYEI), which was implemented as part of the Basic Education Employment Initiative (BEEI) across all nine provinces, to reduce youth unemployment in the country.
When their contracts ended, the former workers qualified to claim unemployment insurance benefits from the UIF.
“In the following week, the UIF will increase capacity for the campaign in KwaZulu-Natal Province to which it will dispatch two separate teams to assist clients even speedier.
“The dates and venues for this will be announced in due course on the Fund’s social media platforms and through the media,” the department said.
Source: South African Government News Agency