South Africans will be pleased to note that during what feels like an endless struggle with COVID-19, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Government has announced an extension of TERS benefits to August. This extension provides an additional six weeks during which employers will be able to claim for employees who, to date, have not yet returned to work or who have taken the knock on their salaries. This announcement could not have come at a better time to alleviate additional stressors as we see the rate of infections increase towards a peak.
The Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour, Ms Boitumelo Moloi, announced: “Following due diligence and consultation with the Unemployment Insurance Fund actuaries, and in line with the President’s decision to extend the life of the Disaster Management Act until 15th August, we have taken the decision to similarly extend the COVID-19 TERS benefit until 15th August 2020.”
With the extension, the scheme is said to be considering closure of the April, May and June applications at the end of July 2020, but will continue to process all valid applications submitted.
To date, the TERS scheme has made 7.4 million payments totalling R34-billion. Many employers, however, are still awaiting payments for June and only a percentage of those who have been paid, were paid in full.
Pay-outs commence at a minimum of R3,500 and are capped at a maximum of R6,730 per month should an employee’s earnings be in excess of R17,700. The maximum percentage recovery on one’s salary is at 60% while those with higher salaries (again in excess of R17,700) can see a recovery of 38%.
The scheme is continuously attempting to improve its security systems and mitigate fraud as best it can. In the month of June, it introduced an additional 2 security features, namely insertion of a mandatory enterprise/ID number and notifications of users already logged in.
The extension of TERS Benefits to August is likely to be the last extension of the benefit.
