UIF FORM U-19 FILLED OUT BY EX-EMPLOYERS

[Taitai]

I hope someone can advise me . . . I was retrenched along with my 4 colleagues in July, received a little severance package.

Our U-19 forms had been filled out by the bookkeeper employed by the owner of the business. Only after submitting my form (in person, as the website locked my account for reasons unknown) did I realize that the section headed Hours of Work had not been completed. I checked with my ex- colleagues, who all said their forms had been correctly filled out - so that leaves only myself with this problem.

I contacted the bookkeeper, who was very short with me & said I should "just fill it in myself" & she "did not know my hours of work" (totally untrue, we had all worked the same number of shifts over the past 6 years in retail)

I am very worried about this, as UIF has the original U-19. So, if I fill in my hours myself, on the copy I kept of the form, would that be considered a "crime"?

Apart from that, when do I submit the new form U-19? At once? Wait for them to reject the first application & only then submit it? At the UIF office I was told they would sms me "in 8 weeks", which would mean the middle of November. So another 8 weeks after that brings us to January 2021. And as I have no other form of income I am sponging off my daughter. . . . . who is going to have to apply for Debt Review because of me.

Nobody answers the phone when I try to ring the UIF offices; I've spent about R750 on airtime, hanging on for hours & then being cut off.

I feel quite hopeless right now. I spoke to the owners of the now-closed business, but response was that he did not "want to get involved"

Any advice would be much appreciated!

[Dave A]

Our U-19 forms had been filled out by the bookkeeper employed by the owner of the business.

The one(s) that were given to you - was it for just the last month of employment or for a number of months?

[Taitai]

It was for the time since I was made redundant, at the end July onwards, after the TERS came to an end.

[Dave A]

My line of thinking in asking the question is as follows:

Apart from that, when do I submit the new form U-19? At once? Wait for them to reject the first application & only then submit it?

The employer has to submit a UI-19 return every month. In theory you do not need to submit a UI-19 return at all. Your claim is actually going to be informed by the full history of your contributions and claims, not just the last return.

The reason why employers have tended to supply employees with a UI-19 return in the past has been to facilitate a prompter response from UIF when the employee registers their claim and the last UI-19 return from the employer has not been processed by the UIF yet.

[Taitai]

Thank you. . . but I am not really convinced, as the UIF video on Youtube indicates that the field for Hours Worked per Month must be filled in, or the claim will be rejected. . . I hope you are right, though!

[Dave A]

Taitai - My point is your position is not reliant on you submitting the UI-19 return, which just has your data and is for just 1 month. The primary process is the submission of a UI-19 form to UIF by the employer which contains the data of all the employees.

This form may not have the problem contained on your individual form.

At the end of the day if the claim is rejected, at least you will be able to chase down a reason and deal with that. In the meantime try not to beat yourself up speculating as to what might go wrong - hard as that is I'm sure. Given that your colleagues' UI-19s were correct, there is a reasonable chance the full submission was correct too.

[Taitai]

Thank you for taking the time to answer However, as all my colleague's forms did have (totally thumb sucked!) hours of work filled in, I am very dubious about it. But I certainly hope you are right!

[Taitai]

AN UPDATE: An ex colleague of mine has been told we also need to submit a Salary Schedule form in order to receive UIF payments. Why were we not told this t start with? I now have to beg the unwilling and unpleasant book keeper to do one for me. . .then queue again etc. I feel quite despondent.