My months-long battle with the Unemployment Insurance Fund that got me precisely nowhere

By Sean Houghton

15 Aug 2024

Appeal to the new minister of labour to fix the problems with the fund.

I started the process of claiming from the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) in May. Three months later, I’ve got nowhere.

I retired at the end of April. On 14 or 15 May, I went to the UIF offices in Plein Street, Cape Town. I was told to be there early, so I took the 4.45am train from Fish Hoek and walked to Plein Street, arriving a little after 6am.

There was a very long queue already. I waited for about five hours and was eventually told I wasn’t going to get to see anyone that day and should leave.

I was told I need to be there by 3am at the latest, or I wouldn’t get in to see an agent. There is no train early enough to get there at that time, unless I wait the entire night on the pavement.

I was also told there is a labour office in Fish Hoek and it would be easier there.

So I went to the Fish Hoek municipal offices the following Wednesday, 22 May. I was told they don’t have a UIF department and that I must go to Simon’s Town on a Wednesday.

Only open every second week

I took an early train to Simon’s Town the following week. There was no one there. According to a notice on the door, the office appears to only be open every second week.

So I took the early train to Simon’s Town on Wednesday 5 June. There were a few hundred people waiting. The consultants arrived at 9.30am. Eventually I got to see someone, who told me they’d need my bank details on an official Department of Labour form. I said they had my bank details because they’d paid me an amount during the Covid-19 lockdown. They insisted it must be on the form. Without transport, it was impossible to get back that day. So I could only return two weeks later, on Wednesday, 19 June.

That day I waited and eventually got to see someone. He was very polite and very professional.

He walked me through the whole process of registering me on the UIF app and making sure my online application was accepted. He then went through all my forms: UI-19, Department of Labour Salary Schedule, Bank Authorisation and ID copy, to make sure they were all correct and in order. He confirmed they were.

He told me it would take 19-20 days for the assessors to approve the application. This was disappointing because my finances were low.

I phoned the UIF Helpline several times for updates and to ask if my application could be fast-tracked. They were very polite but said I would have to wait until the 20 days were up.

Eventually, on about 10 July, I got a phone call from my former employer. He said he’d received an email from the UIF asking him to submit the UI-19 and salary schedule forms again, ostensibly to ensure that my claim wasn’t fraudulent. He did so that same day.

Cancelled

I then got an email from the UIF asking me to submit the forms, all over again – including an official registration for job seeking. If this was not done within two weeks, I was told, the claim would be cancelled.

I phoned the helpline several times and said I wasn’t looking for a job because I had retired and the category in which I was claiming UIF was “retirement”. The people I spoke to were polite, but didn’t seem to understand my situation.

I tried to submit what they asked for online, except the job seeker’s form. However, I could not access my UIF profile. It kept telling me my ID number was not a valid ID number.

I decided to go back to the Simon’s Town Labour Centre the following Wednesday, 17 July, and either sort it out or submit my forms to them.

I explained everything to the consultant there and said it did not make sense to me. I emphasised my precarious financial state and how urgent it was. She agreed that it didn’t make sense and told me that she would send a request to the assessors that day and have them sort it out.

I asked her several times if there was anything more I should do and she said no, it would all be sorted out.

I phoned the helpline the following Monday, 22 July. I told them I’d been told it would all be sorted soon, and could they give me an update?

I was told that my original claim had been “parked” and a new claim had been submitted on 19 July, and which claim was I referring to? I had no idea what they were speaking about. I said, the claim that would succeed.

They then told me it wouod now take another 20 to 45 working days – from 19 July – for the claim to reach the assessors. I was shocked! I asked if I could speak to a manager or escalate my query or flag it as urgent, and was told no, I could only follow up after 20 working days.

Desperation

In desperation I tried contacting the UIF directly and the minister of labour but never got to speak to anyone. I looked for a civics organisation that might help me, but couldn’t find one that dealt with such issues.

An investigator at the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse gave me the contact details for two UIF commission executives. I tried to call them but got no answer. I emailed them, and the UIF ombudsman, but have received no replies or even acknowledgment from anyone.

My battle with the UIF is now in its fourth month, with no assurance or clarity about anything. My situation has become dire, hence I am prepared to accept the public shaming an appeal such as this will cause. I hope I will not be penalised by the UIF for doing so.

There are several issues the UIF commissioner and new minister of labour need to explain and address, urgently:

What sort of government service expects unemployed people to queue in the rain and cold from 3am just to see a consultant, and then be turned away after waiting for hours?

Why are there not enough consultants and an efficient process to see everyone who queues from a reasonable time, and to sort out claims properly the first time?

Why are satellite offices only open once every two weeks?

Why is there such a disconnect between the “live” consultants who assure everything is correct, and helpline consultants who insist nothing is?

How can UIF simply “park” a claim and insist the claimant submit the same forms over and over again? Without ever saying what, exactly, is wrong with the “parked” documents?

Why does it take 20-45 working days to assess a claim?

Why is there no escalation process or opportunity to speak to an experienced executive, either in person or on the phone, who can actually sort out claims and issues in real time?

Section 10 of the Constitution states: “Everyone has inherent dignity and the right to have their dignity respected and protected.” I would like to appeal to the new Minister of Labour, Nomakhosazana Meth, to apply this strictly. Particularly as far as the administration of the Unemployment Insurance Fund is concerned.

Response from UIF Director of Communications, Trevor Hattingh

The allegations made by Mr Houghton are quite disheartening and I apologise unreservedly for what he’s had to go through.

We have instructed an official in the Western Cape province to contact Mr Houghton and resolve his claim expeditiously.

Notwithstanding this immediate action, the allegations had been escalated to the UIF commissioner who has ordered an internal investigation to get to the facts and, most importantly, remedy any inefficiency or challenge with how services are being rendered in the province.

As the UIF we are currently busy developing a service delivery improvement strategy and have been visiting labour centres across the country along with the UIF board, audit committee and other governance structures to gain understanding of challenges on the ground with a view to developing and implementing lasting solutions.

The UIF has established “visiting points” in outlying communities to ensure that services are accessible to communities.

These visiting points are not labour centres and are serviced once or twice a month over and above services being rendered at labour centres.

Officials who visit communities work until every last person in a queue is helped. At no direction of the UIF are clients informed to arrive at 3am, not only for safety and health reasons but also because this is outside of our operating hours.

Where a claim has been submitted physically, either at a labour centre or a visiting point, proof of such a submission is given to a client and recorded on our side as a matter of common cause.

At each service area around the country we have experienced managers who are available to assist clients and resolve any enquiries they may have. DM

First published by GroundUp.

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South Africa

Only open every second week

Cancelled

Desperation

Response from UIF Director of Communications, Trevor Hattingh