The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) continues to operate within the parameters of legislations governing public entities. This is borne out by the fact that for the past six years the Fund has been receiving clean audit reports from the Auditor-General.
This emerged yesterday during the UIF's presentation to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Labour, Commissioner Boas Seruwe said apart from receiving a clean audit report the Fund managed to pay out unemployment benefits to the value of R5,4 billion for the period ended in March 2011, compared to R5,7 billion paid in the previous reporting period.
“The Fund continues to provide protection to workers who lost their jobs due to the economic downturn. Although the number of unemployment insurance beneficiaries is declining a significant number of people are still benefiting from the Fund,” Seruwe said.
A breakdown of the UIF benefits paid during the reporting period reveals that a bulk of the payments were for unemployment benefits at R 4,2 billion followed by maternity benefits at R658 million, dependants benefits at R318 million, illness benefits at R233 million and adoption benefit recorded at R731, 000.
Apart from the benefit payments, Seruwe the Fund also played a pivotal role in job retention and creation through its investment in the Independent Development Corporation (IDC).
In April 2010, a R2 billion five-year private placement bond was issued by the Fund to the IDC, the main objective being to investment towards sustainable job creation and job retention. The UIF in turn would benefit through the reduction of unemployment claims while collecting monthly contribution from job creation.
According to Seruwe the UIF/IDC bond is performing well in the market and the IDC has approved 76 deals valued at R1, 6 billion by the 31 March
2011. He said through this initiative 10 047 jobs were created and 7 186 jobs were saved, a total of 17 233.
The UIF Commissioner told the portfolio committee members that the Fund’s financial position was sound. He said despite the difficult economic conditions, UIF was able to increase the number of registered employers on its database.
Subsequently, the increased number of employers increased the Fund’s contribution revenue to R11, 3 billion compared to the previous years’ contribution revenue of R11 billion. The number of companies in the UIF database has also increased from more than 1,2-miillion to more than 1,3-million employers.
He further said the Fund’s investment revenue showed an increase from R3,5 billion in the 2009/10 to R3,6 billion in the current reporting period.
The Fund’s investment portfolio also increased from R43 billion to R52 billion.
Seruwe attributed the Fund’s sterling performance to improved internal controls, improved operational systems and the dedicated staff.
Enquiries:
Page Boikanyo
cell: 082 809 3195
Muzi Mkhwanazi
Cell: 072 765 4506
