Johannesburg, 07 Feb 2012
The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) Act is important to both employers and employees, but like most legislation applying to employment, it can be complex and difficult for companies to administer and for employees to claim benefits. Automated payroll software systems simplify the processes and ensure fair treatment for both.
The UIF provides short-term relief, by means of paying benefits, should the employee be unemployed for a period of time.
The UIF provides benefits for unemployment, maternity, illness, adoption and death based on specific formulas to determine the daily rate of remuneration to any person who has contributed to the UIF and is now legitimately claiming benefits.
“To add to the complexity, the calculations vary, depending on an employee's remuneration factor and whether the employee was paid monthly, weekly or fortnightly,” says Grant Lloyd, managing director of payroll and HR software specialist Softline Pastel Payroll, part of the Softline and Sage Group.
“An automated payroll software system will provide a complete electronic record of employee remuneration and of their historical individual contributions to the UIF, as well as produce the appropriate forms for completion and submission to the Department of Labour electronically.”
Lloyd adds that the UIF is introducing new technology to simplify and de-mystify the claiming of UIF benefits. Among the measures being taken are the introduction of a “virtual unemployment portal”, called the UIF Virtual Office, that will streamline the workloads of UIF Labour Centres. Companies will be able to upload information, such as employee engagements, terminations, remuneration and details to the Fund.
“There are 33 000 rules applied within the UIF system, but the UIF now has a framework called Siyaya in place to streamline the handling and administration of the benefits relating to many thousands of claims. Just the management of the details of more than eight million employees in the system is an enormous task.
“With a large volume of UIF applications, automated payroll systems play a vital role by ensuring that all of the required information is presented with any claim.
“Employees can now be registered online and submit claims electronically, all of which helps to ensure that the unemployed receive their benefits in the shortest possible time. The UIF is conscious of security and confidentiality in its operations.”
Pastel Partner Payroll software automatically updates new limits implemented by the UIF Act that form the basis of UIF calculations. It also offers pre-set transactions and verification of UIF income. The software's UIF electronic declaration report automatically populates the required fields and ensures the UIF report is run every month, saving the detail in a separate folder for safekeeping and company records. This electronic declaration will automatically be e-mailed to the Department of Labour using Microsoft Outlook.
Should any changes be made to UIF limits, Softline Pastel Payroll automatically releases a legislative update for the software, ensuring that the new calculation totals are updated. If Pastel Payroll customers have an active Internet connection, installing new UIF updates will be quick and simple. By making use of Frictionless Updates technology, the payroll software will always be processed using the latest version with up-to-date legislative changes. Pastel Payroll customers no longer need to visit a Web site to download and install updates manually, as the software does it all on behalf of the customer.
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