The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has introduced new, more stringent controls to verify banking details, to ensure that the Covid-19 Temporary Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) does not fall prey to criminal elements.
As a result of having to implement the security changes, the fund has had to delay payments; however, it resumed payments over the weekend and disbursed R372-million in benefit claims.
Since April 16, the UIF has paid just under R30-billion in TERS benefit claims, covering 6.7-million workers from 539 953 employers.
The fund had been at the receiving end of fraud complaints after it emerged that certain individuals managed to change the banking details of their companies and inserted their own.
As part of the new control measures, the UIF has introduced a rule to the system that requires applicants to insert either the enterprise number or the identification number of the bank account holder in the TERS online portal, to further verify banking details against the authorised claimant.