How to claim UIF after being retrenched

If you have been retrenched you claim UIF unemployment benefits from the Department of Employment and Labour, either in person at a labour centre or online through UIF Online. Retrenchment counts as a loss of work, so you qualify in principle, provided you contributed to the fund while you were employed.

This guide is part of our UIF in South Africa: the complete guide for workers, which links every guide on the topic.

The Unemployment Insurance Fund is governed by the Unemployment Insurance Act 63 of 2001. Your UIF is separate from anything your employer pays you. Severance pay, notice pay and leave pay come from the employer. UIF comes from the state fund you contributed to every month.

Check that you qualify

You generally qualify for unemployment benefits if:

• You contributed to the UIF while employed. Look for the UIF deduction on your payslips.
• You lost your work rather than chose to leave. Retrenchment, dismissal and the end of a fixed term contract all count. A plain resignation usually does not.
• You are able to work and available to work.
• You register as a work seeker.

Some workers are excluded from the fund, including people who work fewer than 24 hours a month for the employer, and certain categories of public servants and foreign workers on specific contracts. If you are unsure, ask at a labour centre.

Get your documents together

You will usually be asked for:

1. Your South African ID, or your passport, work permit and asylum documents if you are not a citizen.
2. Form UI-19, which the employer completes and submits, showing your employment dates, your earnings and the reason your employment ended. Ask HR for a copy for your own records. Our guide to the UI-19 and the other UIF forms explains who fills in what.
3. A certificate of service from your employer.
4. Your banking details, usually on a bank statement or a stamped bank confirmation letter in your own name.
5. Your last payslips, commonly the last six.
6. The retrenchment or termination letter.

Make sure the reason on the UI-19 is correct. If it says "resigned" when you were retrenched, your claim may be refused. Go back to your employer and ask for it to be corrected before you file.

How to claim, step by step

Option 1: online through UIF Online. Go to uifonline.labour.gov.za, register with your ID number, and complete the application for unemployment benefits. You upload your documents on the same system. Do not use uFiling for this: the uFiling portal now says employee benefit claims are no longer processed there and sends workers to UIF Online. Employers still use uFiling for their monthly declarations. Applying online avoids queues, but keep your reference number, and if the system rejects your details the labour centre can sort it out in person. Our step-by-step guide to claiming UIF online walks through each screen.

Option 2: at a labour centre. Take your documents to any Department of Employment and Labour labour centre. Staff will help you complete the application forms and register you as a work seeker. Go early, take copies of everything, and keep any reference number you are given.

Either way you must confirm, on the dates the claims officer sets, that you are still unemployed and still able and available for work. Online this is done by submitting a payment request on UIF Online, usually about every four weeks; at a labour centre it is called signing the register. Missing a confirmation date is the most common reason payments stop.

A worked example

This example is illustrative. Benefit amounts are deliberately left out, because the earnings ceiling and the sliding scale are updated from time to time and the labour centre or UIF Online will give you the figure that applies to you.

Zanele is retrenched from a call centre after four years. Her last day is 28 February. On her last day she collects her certificate of service and asks HR for a copy of the UI-19. She notices that the "reason for termination" box says "contract expired" rather than "retrenched" and asks for it to be corrected before she leaves the building. HR reissues it the same afternoon.

On 3 March she registers on UIF Online, uploads her ID, the corrected UI-19, a stamped bank letter and her last six payslips, and submits the application. Her employer's monthly UIF declarations are up to date, so her employment record matches the form. The claim is approved and her first payment arrives in April, about five weeks after she applied. She submits a payment request on UIF Online every four weeks. When she starts a new job on 1 June she declares it, and the claim ends. Because she contributed for four years without claiming, she had built up more credit days than she used. If she loses work again, the Fund counts her credits over the four years before that claim and deducts the days it has already paid her in that period, so the unused days are not simply lost.

Her colleague Thabo waits until his severance runs out in July before applying. His claim is still inside the 12-month limit, so it is accepted, but he has gone months without money he could have been receiving. The lesson is that severance and UIF are separate, and there is no reason to wait for one before claiming the other.

Apply as soon as you can

Do not wait. Section 17(2) of the Unemployment Insurance Act 63 of 2001 says you must apply within 12 months of the termination of your contract of employment. After that, the Commissioner may accept a late claim only on just cause shown, meaning a good reason for the delay, and without one the claim can be refused. Waiting until your severance runs out is a mistake people make often.

You do not have to wait for your severance to be paid before you apply, and severance does not disqualify you.

What to do this week

1. Ask HR in writing for your UI-19 and certificate of service if you do not have them yet, and check the reason for termination on the UI-19.
2. Get a stamped bank confirmation letter or a recent statement in your own name.
3. Copy your last six payslips and your retrenchment letter.
4. Register on UIF Online (uifonline.labour.gov.za) or find your nearest labour centre.
5. Submit the claim and write down the reference number.
6. Diarise your confirmation dates.
7. Check your final payslip against the severance, notice and leave you are owed, using the retrenchment package calculator.
8. Diarise day 30 from your last day if you think the retrenchment itself was unfair.

What you get paid, and for how long

The fund does not pay your full salary. It pays a percentage of the salary you earned, on a sliding scale, where lower earners receive a higher percentage of their previous income and higher earners a lower percentage. Contributions and benefits are calculated against an earnings ceiling that is updated from time to time, so the amount used for a high earner is capped rather than based on the full salary.

How long you receive benefits depends on how many credit days you built up while contributing. Under section 13(3) of the Act you earn one credit day for every four completed days of employment, counted over the four years before your employment ended, to a maximum of 365 days. Days already paid to you for unemployment or illness in that four-year period are deducted. Someone who has contributed for four years without claiming will have far more credits than someone who has just started work.

A full year of credits does not mean a full year at the same rate. Section 12(3)(d) of the Act says the first 238 days are paid at your income replacement rate, the sliding-scale percentage, and any remaining credits are paid at a flat 20% of your daily income. So if you are still unemployed after about eight months, expect the payments to drop noticeably. The UIF benefits calculator shows both parts of the split.

Because the ceiling and the scale change, do not rely on a rand figure you read on a forum. Ask at the labour centre or check on UIF Online for the amount that applies to you.

How long payment takes

Once a complete claim is accepted, first payment commonly comes through within a few weeks. Delays are almost always caused by one of these:

• The employer has not submitted its UIF declarations, so your record does not show the correct employment dates.
• The reason for termination on the UI-19 is wrong.
• Banking details do not match your ID.
• You missed a confirmation date.

If your claim stalls, go back to the labour centre with your reference number and ask what is outstanding in writing. Our guide on how long UIF takes to pay out sets out realistic timelines and how to escalate. If the problem is your employer's declarations, remind them in writing that submitting UIF information is a legal obligation, and report it to the Department of Employment and Labour if they refuse. The guide on what to do if your employer did not pay UIF covers that route.

Your rights and your employer's duties

You have the right to a completed UI-19 and a certificate of service when you leave, to have your employer's contributions and declarations kept up to date while you were employed, to claim from the fund without your employer's permission, and to receive severance, notice and leave pay from the employer regardless of what the fund pays.

Your employer has a duty to register you with the fund, deduct your contribution and pay it over together with its own, declare your earnings and employment dates every month, and issue the UI-19 with the correct reason for termination. An employer that "forgot" to register you has broken the law, and that is the Department's problem to pursue with the employer, not a reason for your claim to fail.

Common mistakes and what they cost

• Waiting for severance to run out before claiming. It delays your money, and a claim made more than 12 months after you left can be refused unless you show just cause.
• Accepting a UI-19 that says "resigned". The claim is refused until it is corrected.
• Missing a confirmation date. Payments stop for that period and you may have to restart the process.
• Working while still confirming that you are unemployed. That is treated as a fraudulent claim and can be prosecuted.
• Not checking the employer's declarations. If the record is blank, the claim stalls for weeks while it is fixed.
• Treating the UIF claim as a challenge to the retrenchment. It is not. The 30 day deadline to refer an unfair dismissal runs separately.

Other UIF benefits you should know about

The fund is not only for unemployment. It also pays illness benefits when illness stops you working for at least seven days, maternity benefits, adoption and parental benefits, and dependants' benefits to the family of a contributor who dies. Each has its own form and its own documents.

If you were retrenched while on maternity leave, say so at the labour centre, because it affects which benefit you claim first.

While you wait

Check that your employer paid everything it owed you before you close the file. That is severance of at least one week's remuneration for each completed year of continuous service, your notice pay, and your accrued annual leave paid out. Our retrenchment package calculator will give you a rough figure to compare against your final payslip, and Can my employer retrench me without paying severance? explains what is owed.

If you think the retrenchment itself was unfair, the deadline to refer an unfair dismissal dispute is 30 days from the dismissal. That is a separate process from UIF and running a UIF claim does not affect it. See how to refer an unfair dismissal to the CCMA.

If you cannot afford an attorney

A UIF claim does not need one. The labour centre helps you free of charge and the Department investigates an employer that has not registered you or paid over contributions. For a dispute about the retrenchment or the money you were paid, the CCMA on 0861 16 16 16 and bargaining councils are free, and a union represents its members at no extra charge. Legal Aid South Africa is on 0800 110 110 and applies a means test. At CCMA arbitration legal representation is not automatic for misconduct and incapacity dismissals and the commissioner decides whether to allow it, so most people run their own money claims.