SIU details levels of criminality in fraudulent claiming of UIF benefits during COVID-19

CAPE TOWN - The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has detailed the levels of criminality in the fraudulent claiming of benefits from the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The SIU said illegal claims included how foreigners were caught using identity documents (ID) numbers of soldiers from the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to claim from the UIF's Temporary employer/employee relief scheme (TERS).

The SIU told the standing committee on public accounts (SCOPA) on Friday that the UIF paid out about R57 billion to at least 240,000 entities, with a lot of them done fraudulently.

The SIU said it probed some 6,000 employees that were identified in 24 government departments across all nine provinces for claiming from the UIF, despite being fully employed.

Gauteng recorded the most matters with 1,665 cases followed by the Western Cape with 938 matters.

SIU head Advocate Andy Mothibi said several state officials were caught "double dipping" and this formed a big part of their investigations.

“The other modus operandi is employees who were employed, government employees using this opportunity to claim and that's why we're calling it double dipping.” 

The SIU's Leonard Lekgetho also told the committee that members of the SANDF were also used by fraudsters who stole their ID numbers.

“So, they really were not involved. It just happened that their IDs were stolen by foreigners who used them. And most of them we found working in different companies. For example, some were working for Spar and working for another company that claimed.”

But Lekgetho said most of the people who stole the IDs were prosecuted through a collaboration with the police.