The Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the Fund’s death claims process. The Death Claims Committee and the Administrator’s specialist team had to meet remotely to attend to the allocation of benefits.
The human resource department is the main source of information and contact with the potential beneficiaries and with most of the staff also working remotely, obtaining documents (e.g. certified death certificate, IDs and affidavits) from potential beneficiaries was particularly challenging during lockdown levels 5 and 4.
The Death Claims Committee had to adapt their processes and manner of working to counter these challenges. The improved processes and adapted documentation have proven to be very effective and the Committee was successful in maintaining the quality of the allocation decisions during the various lockdown levels. Streamlining the processes has in fact resulted in improved delivery times and the Committee continues to use these improved processes.
The Committee is however of the opinion that not all deaths that occurred during lockdown have yet been reported to the Fund.