My three-month battle with the Unemployment Insurance Fund
Appeal to the new Minister of Labour to fix the problems with the fund
Queues at the offices of the Department of Labour in Cape Town. Archive photo: Qaqamba Falithenjwa
I started the process of claiming from the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) in May. Three months later, Iâve got nowhere.
I retired at the end of April. On 14 or 15 May, I wentâ âto 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 wasnât 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 wouldnât 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 donât have a UIF department and that I must go to Simons Town on a Wednesday.
I took an early train to Simons 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 Simons 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 theyâd need my bank details on an official Department of Labour form. I said they had my bank details because theyâd paid me an amount during Covid 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 they 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 heâd received an email from the UIF asking for him to submit the UI-19 and salary schedule forms again, ostensibly to ensure that my claim wasnât fraudulent. He did so that same day.
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 wasnât looking for a job because I had retired and the category by which I was claiming UIF was âRetirementâ. The people I spoke to were polite but didnât seem to understand my situation.
I tried to submit what they asked for online, except the job seekerâs 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 Simons 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 didnât 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 Iâd been told it would all be sorted soon and could they give me an update?
I was told that my original claim had been âparkedâ 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 will 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.
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 couldnât find one that dealt with such issues.
An investigator at OUTA 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 âLiveâ consultants who assure everything is correct, and Helpline consultants who insist nothing is?
- How can UIF simply âparkâ a claim and insist the claimant submit the same forms over and over again? Without ever saying what, exactly, is wrong with the âparkedâ 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: âEveryone has inherent dignity and the right to have their dignity respected and protectedâ. 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 Trevor Hattingh for the UIF
The allegations made by Mr Houghton are quite disheartening and I apologise unreservedly for what heâs 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 of developing and implementing lasting solutions.
The UIF has established âvisiting pointsâ 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.
Editorâs note: GroundUpâs Agony Aunt has answered numerous questions about readersâ UIF issues over the years. Read them here.
Letters
Dear Editor
My journey with the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has now extended into its sixth month, and unlike the person in the article, Iâve had access to the online portalsâthough this has proven to be more of a curse than a blessing. I began the process on the 4th of March, meticulously following the weakly provided instructions. What ensued was a frustrating cycle of rejections, appeals, and cancellations on the UIF application site (https://ufiling.labour.gov.za/uif/). When my application was finally cancelled, I was directed to yet another website (https://ccselfservice.labour.gov.za) to raise an enquiry.
After months of submitting and resubmitting documents, I concluded the process in June, naively expecting a resolution soon. Instead, Iâve found myself in a void where no one can explain the delay. Reaching out to the call center results in speaking to polite representatives who are ultimately unable to help. They can only press an escalation button and tell me to wait another 10 daysâa process that has repeated itself four times now with no further action.
The reality is that the online system simply doesnât work. The mobile app is entirely non-functional. Despite my repeated inquiries, I still have no idea when or if my claim will be resolved, let alone what my remuneration will be. An insurance fund is meant to provide support from the time it is due. If there are delays in approval, valid or otherwise, payments should be backdated to reflect the months of unemployment. The current situation makes me suspect that these delays might be intentional, hoping that applicants will find employment before their claims are processed, thus leaving months of unemployment uncompensated.
This situation demands an investigation by the Department of Labour and the Public Protector, particularly into the non-functioning IT systems that some company is undoubtedly being paid for. The inefficiencies and failures of these digital platforms are costing people their livelihoods and must be addressed urgently.
Dear Editor
It appears our story is the same. My battle is in its 5th month, with regular visits to the UIF office every month and getting the constant lies that it will be resolved expeditiously, but with no feedback. Calls to the call centre end with me being told that my claim has been cancelled, but with no reason given. I am merely told it will be escalated to a manager and nothing happens. No response is received from the Complaints e-mail or any manager.
UIF specialists say they can assist claimants for a R850 fee, but are not allowed to assist when you have already registered a claim. I have, in person, given documents so many times, with no results. So, back I go to the 5-hour queue in Kleinmond again tomorrow, even though I was promised it would be resolved after my previous monthly visit.
I am 65 and have a serious leg injury, so the cold, rain and hours standing are agonising! Please, please advise how the thousands of people with the same problem can get these claims resolved.
Dear Editor
I was forced to retire in Feb 2020. I had worked for the same company since 1987 until then, with only a 4-month break in service. I submitted an online claim in March 2020. Since then. Despite countless phone calls and resubmitting forms numerous times. I have still not received a cent. It is absolutely shocking. It is theft to have contributed monthly for many years and not receive what is due to you. This is not an isolated case. I personally know of lots of claimants in the same situation.
Why is this happening?
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