Readers were sceptical following the announcement that the Unemployment Insurance Fund (IUF) Temporary Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) had been extended to the restaurant industry and other industries affected by the lockdown, highlighting that many had been excluded for various reasons and had yet to benefit from earlier claims.

These reasons include supposed ineligibility for the scheme as well as claims being rejected because the South African Revenue Service’s Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes were incorrect.

Tourism Update reader, Gray Beazley, commented: “I am a director of an operating company, being a small hotel, and a company that solely collects rent from the hotel (this is standard company structure). The response from TERS is that, because I am paying UIF for myself from the company collecting the rent, I am not entitled to collect from TERS.

“But my wife, paying UIF from the operating company is getting paid. We are losing a small fortune every month since lockdown, trying to keep our doors open and employing a few staff.”

EDITOR’S NOTE

Last month, COO of SATSA, Hannelie du Toit, confirmed to Tourism Update that the tourism industry, in its entire value chain, qualified for the extended Unemployment Insurance Fund Temporary Employee Relief Scheme programme.

SATSA has been working to address its members’ TERS headaches and pay-out issues.