Freedom Front Plus (FF+) MP Heloise Denner has poured cold water over labour minister Nomakhosazana Meth’s assertion that the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has only 2,626 outstanding claims for maternity benefits, saying she is inundated with complaints from women who have not been paid timeously.
The labour department oversees the UIF, which provides financial support to qualifying employees when they are unemployed or on maternity leave. Pregnant workers are entitled to at least four months of maternity leave and can claim maternity benefits from the UIF if their salaries are not paid in full during this period.
In a written response to questions posed in parliament by Denner, the minister said there were no outstanding maternity benefit claims for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years. The backlog was primarily due to the submission of incomplete applications and employers incorrectly declaring employees as “active” when they went on maternity leave, said the minister.
“Provinces are addressing these issues by reporting such cases to employer services to [follow up] ... with employers and contacting claimants to provide outstanding supporting documents,” she said.
Denner expressed scepticism about the figures provided by the minister, saying her office was flooded with complaints from women struggling to obtain maternity benefits. |
“Nearly 90% of those who complain to me tell me that they’ve been asked repeatedly to resubmit the same documentation,” she said. Many women waited up to two years for their maternity benefits to be paid, and none of them had been assisted by provincial offices, she said.
“Either she is being misled, or the UIF data is wrong,” said Denner.
DA MP Michael Bagraim said he too had received numerous complaints from women struggling to obtain their maternity benefits from the UIF and a two-year wait was not uncommon. He also questioned the figures provided by the minister in response to a second set of questions from Denner on the Compensation Fund, which covers medical expenses for injuries sustained at work.
Given the volume of complaints he received from individuals who had been forced to resubmit paperwork because the fund maintained it had no record of their claims, the data was implausible, he said.
“How can you give statistics if you don’t have a record of the complaint in the first place,” he asked.
“We know the systems aren’t working.... Those statistics just cannot be the truth because no matter who you speak to, they tell you about [the] nightmares that they have with the compensation fund,” he said.
According to the minister, the Compensation Fund had received 235,845 invoices valued at R893m in the first quarter of 2025/26, of which 210,890 had been finalised to the value of R815m. Of the remainder, 7,142 had been assessed and deemed non-payable, and 31,886 claims were being finalised.
While the fund endeavoured to pay 87% of claims within 30 working days, and the remainder within three months, it did not have the capacity to handle the volume of invoices it received, said the minister. The fund had 29,799 claims older than 90 days, worth R68m, she said.
The Compensation Fund’s performance could be improved relatively quickly if it brought in a private sector provider, such as medical scheme administrator, said Bagraim.
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