Dear Portfolio Committee on Employment and Labour,

I am a labour practitioner who assisted 13 applicants (high risk people over 55 and with medical conditions) who either retired or got retrenched, with their Ufiling claims between July 2020 and November 2020. NONE of these people received any payout. We live in Orkney, there is no labour centre in our town. We have to travel to Klerksdorp and stand a chance to be mugged whilst waiting in the queue at the labour centre.

All these people worked for more than 4 years on the local mine and have VALID claims without any "issues" that might impact their claims. I submitted their claims, e-mailed the paperwork, etc. Month after month I kept on doing it because telephonically the UIF does not answer any of the tel nrs listed. Eventually in December I reached a consultant who gave me another e-mail because the declarations mail was to backed up and I resent all the paperwork to the e-mail address give. NO REPLY.

In January I called again and after several days I got hold of someone telephonically who sent me a link to upload documentation as the e-mail addresses provided previously "are no longer in use" without any notice of this ever being sent to anyone. I uploaded the documentation for all the claimants as instructed and again NO REPLY.

On the system, several of the claimants show "Payment Done" without receiving a cent...was this money stolen??? Was it a system error??? Are they EVER going to get a payout???

Personally I will start a petition to stop payment of UIF as the "unemployment benefit", that should assist people in having something to eat whilst looking for employment, is nothing but a money making scheme that does not benefit the law abiding citizen that pays for it.