Outstanding Service

<p>I went on maternity leave half way through January. At the beginning of February I app**** for my maternity benefit via the Ufiling website I submitted what was requested and it said it had been sent to the assessor. Needless to say this status never updated for weeks on end and everytime I phoned the call centre I was told a document was missing so I resent them or I was told it can take a minimum of seven weeks to which I nearly fell of my chair. I then got hold of a gentleman by the name of Katlego Nong who was amazing, he looked into my application told me of documents that were still needed and that he would run with my application for me. I sent him all outstanding documents/forms and he phoned me at least twice a week to keep me updated, and once it had been sent to the assessor it was unfortunately out of his hands until the assessor got to my application. Again I had another few weeks of waiting during which Katlego phoned me often to tell me he's still checking to see when and assessor gets it. Eventually realising his hands were tied I phoned Dorothy Boikhutso who is top management at UIF headquarters, I explained to her my situation and she said she would get back to me (at this stage I was now back at work having had my 3 months maternity leave). She phoned me back the same day and told me one of my documents wasn't coming up legible enough for them to use and requested I resent it which I did. She then got Thabang Mahlangu to run with my application and ensure everything was in order and send it to an assessor at Head Office. I phoned Dororthy back the next week to get an update, I then received and email from Thabang informing me that an assessor processed my claim and that it was with the paymaster for payment and I can consider my UIF claim finalised.</p> <p>I am beyone greatful for these three outstanding people who truely went above and beyond to help me and made sure my claim was seen to. I cannot thank them enough and they have restored my faith in the government customer service industry.</p>