The Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF) has advised its members living or working in any of the lockdown zones that they will only qualify for the one-off relief of $220 if they are not accessing any of the active COVID-19 relief and are not being paid during the lockdown period.
The Fund has clarified that the relief is for members who will not receive wages as a result of their inability to access their workplace because of the lockdown restrictions.
And this includes employers who may have closed because of its high-risk or non-essential services business nature such as barbershops, gyms, bars, etcetera.
FNPF acting chief executive officer Viliame Vodonaivalu said members who were receiving fortnightly relief payments for phase 2 round 5 or phase 3 round 4 did not qualify for this lockdown relief.
He said those that did qualify would require their employer to confirm that they were not being paid any wages during this fortnight.
“The Fund is relying on the cooperation of employers to clearly identify members living or working in these containment zones and who would qualify for this relief,” Mr Vodonaivalu said in a statement issued yesterday.
“We have communicated electronically with employers to provide us the names of their staff who are affected.
“We have taken this approach to ensure the proper validations are provided through employers.”
Mr Vodonaivalu said it was important for employers to send their list of employees who had been affected and “we encourage both parties to refrain from colluding or fraud”.
The lockdown relief will now close on May 10.
