Pensioners face tough choice

2003-03-17 09:57

Dumisani Zondi

Pietermaritzburg - Pensioners employed as domestic workers have a difficult choice to make as they will lose their monthly grants when they register by April 1 for the compulsory Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) benefits.

If they do not want to lose their social-grant pensions, they have to quit their jobs so they won't be registered for UIF.

The choice is even more difficult for those old-age pensioners and disabled people who have to work as domestic workers to supplement their pensions of R640, soon to be R700.

With the impact of HIV/Aids, elderly and disabled people find themselves having to do odd jobs to support sick relatives or orphans left behind.

David Khumalo, the labour department's legal and board service manager, said UIF benefits were meant for retrenched and dismissed people or those on maternity leave only, as a short-term relief.

People who got state pensions did not qualify to get the benefits because they were deemed to have an income.

Organisations seeing to the needs of orphaned children like Children In Distress Network (Cindi) and Thandanani Children's Foundation expressed their concerns, saying a R700 grant may be enough for one person, but not for people who provided for unemployed children and grandchildren.

Employers could break law, too

Khumalo said: "If you can no longer work, you receive a state pension.

"If you work 24 hours or more a month you must contribute to the fund. If you have been retrenched, then you can claim for at least eight months. But if you are still employed, you don't qualify to get it."

He said employers who did not register their domestic workers with the fund would be found guilty of breaking the law.

Emphasising there was no exception to the rule, Khumalo said his department is confronted with a new dilemma: pensioners who worked to supplement their income.

He said UIF contributions made while people were active in the job market helped to support their families while they were looking for jobs.

"That's why we ask people if they are still prepared to look for new employment, when they come to our offices to make claims.

"If they say yes, they get the benefits. But, if they say no, we don't give them," he explained.

Employers who spoke on condition of anonymity said the department of labour would deprive many of their workers of a chance to have added income by getting a state pension when they reach pensionable age.

Not likely to fall pregnant "My domestic worker has turned 60. She has worked many years for my family and myself.

"I'm not about to fire her and, at 60, she is not likely to fall pregnant. So, UIF contributions are not going to benefit her," said an employer.

Another employer said her domestic worker certainly did not want to retire, but wanted to continue working and get the old-age pension at the same time.

She said her employee needed extra money because she supported five orphaned grandchildren and her daughter who was unemployed.

"I know a lot of people who have been drawing old-age pension while employed. But, suddenly, those who have just qualified can't supplement their income," she said.

Cindi director Yvonne Spain said the situation called for a concerted advocacy and lobbying campaign involving organisations like theb Black Sash and Alliance for Children's Entitlement to Social Security (Acess).

"Pension is a dividing line between life and death. It might be enough for one person, but not for a person providing a lifeline to many unemployed people in the family.

Will contribute to poverty levels "People will go beyond the law to supplement their pensions and the issue needs to be looked at by wise heads, including the department of social welfare and the Black Sash," she said.

She suggested that the holding of parliamentary public hearings would give a clear picture of the situation in which most destitute families found themselves.

Thandanani Children's Foundation executive director Linda Aadnesgaard said 80% of households served by her organisation used pensions for survival.

"If any income of the caregivers is threatened, that will have an impact on children and it will contribute to poverty levels.

"The needs that will be affected are food, school fees, school uniform and books," she said.

Domestic employers, who fail to heed the call to start contributing towards the fund by April 1, will be fined 10% of the money owed as a penalty.

- The Witness