Durban - The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has paid out R14.5 million to 3 259 former teaching and general assistants after resuming with its campaign in KwaZulu-Natal last week.
The fund, which is an entity of the Department of Employment and Labour, said the former teaching and general assistants were employed as part of the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative (PYEI), which was implemented as part of the Basic Education Employment Initiative (BEEI) across all nine provinces, to reduce youth unemployment in the country.
“When their contracts ended, the former employees qualified to claim unemployment insurance benefits from the UIF.”
The fund said due to the large volume of claims anticipated and to prevent long queues at Labour Centres, the UIF team in KZN met the Provincial Department of Education and agreed on a consolidated approach.
“This included the department availing venues, while the fund confirms the compliance of the former workers in terms of their employment history, declarations and contributions.”
In a statement on Monday, the fund said the payments were disbursed between January 9 and 13 when the fund continued the campaign at the Zululand District Municipality.
“The campaign started in November last year under Amajuba District Municipality where the fund disbursed R7.7 million to 1 746 former educator assistants and general assistants.
“It proceeded to eThekwini and Pinetown in December 2022 where R28.8m was paid out to 6 204 beneficiaries. To date, a cumulative R51.5m has been paid out to 11 209 beneficiaries who were employed in the aforementioned districts.”
The fund will continue with processing and paying out of claims in areas around the Zululand District Municipality this week on these days:
- January17: Bhekuzulu High School in Nongoma;
- 18-19 January 18-19: Pongola Akademie; and
- January 20: Paulpietersburg Primary School.
The UIF urged beneficiaries to bring along a valid ID or passport, a fully charged smartphone with data and proof of banking details.
“To enhance the employment prospects of former teaching and general assistants, the Department of Employment and Labour’s Public Employment Services (PES) branch has been contributing to the campaign by registering CVs of the unemployed clients on the Employment Services of South Africa (Essa) system for possible jobs.”
The fund said Essa is a system where work seekers can register their CVs for possible jobs and also search and apply for new job opportunities.
“Employers are urged to register and advertise vacancies of their organisations on the system for free.”
The system can be accessed on the hyperlink https://essa.labour.gov.za/EssaOnline/WebBeans/