A total of 7199 claims have been lodged with the Compensation Fund for COVID-19 sickness contracted while at work. Of that number, 4595 claims have been submitted directly to the Compensation Fund and a further 2385 to Rand Mutual while Federated Employees have received 219 claims.
Rand Mutual, which operates under licence as granted by the Minister of Employment and Labour and covers mostly workers in the mining and iron and steel industries has seen a sharp rise in claims. This is due to a number of claims that were originally repudiated due to incomplete information but the outstanding information has been furnished. The cases have since been enrolled and are awaiting adjudication.
The Compensation Fund has paid R462,612.40 in medical aid claims and Federated Employees has paid out R11,356.56. A combined R514 963.22 has been paid by for Temporary Total Disablement while R3.25-million in dependant benefits has been paid out. A total of R51 477.53 has been paid out as permanent disablement lump sum while Rand Mutual has also disbursed R18 251.00 for a burial costs.
Of the 4595 claims received by the CF, 2358 come from the Western Cape followed by Eastern Cape with 1107, KwaZulu-Natal with 491, Gauteng with 481, Mpumalanga 91, Northern Cape with 35, North West 29 and Limpopo 3.
The CF has accepted liability to 3109, which represents 67.7% of the claims received, repudiated 544 which is 11.8% and 942 await adjudication which represents 20.5% of the claims received directly.
Of the 2385 claims received by Rand Mutual, Gauteng has received 1870 claims, 160 in the Eastern Cape, 91 in KZN, 72 in the WC, 58 in the Free State, 38 in NW, 20 in Limpopo and 64 are unknown. Of the 2385 claims received so far, 2156 or 90.4% percent are pending adjudication.
Federated employers who represent workers mostly in the construction sector has received a total of 219 claims – mostly from Gauteng (120), Western Cape (32), KZN (19), Northern Cape (11), North West (9), Free State (5) and (3) in Mpumalanga.
As the CF Commissioner Vuyo Mafata has pointed out, in cases where the claims have been repudiated, with better information, the claim could still be approved and the Fund will accept liability.
Issued by: Department of Employment and Labour
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of South African Government.
Source: Apo-Opa
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