Government has extended the Covid-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) until the middle of August.

Workers who have been put on leave, laid off temporarily, or who are not currently being paid their full salary due to the coronavirus pandemic, had been entitled to pay-outs in April, May and June. The scheme was supposed to have been terminated following the June payment.

Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour, Boitumelo Moloi, however, announced on Tuesday that in line with the President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to extend the Disaster Management Act until August 15, the Covid-19 Ters benefit would also be extended until then.

Thus far R31 billion has been paid out, but the UIF has come under fire for not paying out quickly enough, or not paying out full amounts. It has defended itself by saying it had to be cautious as more than 4,000 claims on behalf of dead workers had been detected. The fund said that almost 100,000 fake ID numbers were used to apply for the pay-outs in April and May.

Umm Muhammed Umar