The Fiji National Provident Fund has rejected more than 4000 applications for the extended COVID-19 Relief phases.
According to a statement from the fund these applications were rejected because of insufficient General Account balance and members already accessing the Government’s unemployment assistance.
Chief executive officer Viliame Vodonaivalu said it was unfortunate that out all the applications received almost half of the total applications were rejected.
“We sympathise with these members but we have been clear about the qualifying requirements for the extended relief,” he said. “Despite being aware of the criteria, some members have tried to beat the system, even after applying for and receiving the unemployment assistance from Government.
“This requires extra effort from our processing team as applications are flagged and verified to ensure they are genuine.
“We request members to refrain from submitting applications if they do not qualify. We continue to liaise with Government to verify that members are not double dipping or attempting to access both the Government and the FNPF unemployment assistance.”
FNPF stated the Government-funded unemployment assistance for formal sector employees living outside Viti Levu opened yesterday (August 25). IT was also stated these individuals must apply on the myFNPF App and those who had not downloaded or registered on the app, must do so first, to be able to submit their applications.
“A key verification that has been enabled on the myFNPF App is the device location settings which members must accept in order for their location to be confirmed,” said Mr Vodonaivalu.
“This is important because it allows only those who are outside Viti Levu to apply.
“If this location setting is rejected by the member, then he or she will not be able to proceed with the application,” he said
. The Government unemployment assistance was said to be only for individuals in the formal sector and who had recently become unemployed because to the pandemic.
