DESCRIPTION: |
WHAT IS THE UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE FUND? The Fund offers short-term financial assistance to workers when they become unemployed or are unable to work because of illness, maternity or adoption leave. The Fund also assists the dependants of a contributing worker who has died. All workers who work for more than 24 hours per month (except public servants) must contribute to the Unemployment Insurance Fund. Workers pay 1% of their salaries every month. Their employers contribute a further 1%. It is the employer's responsibility to deduct the worker's contribution from their salary and pay it to the Fund along with their contribution. The employer is also responsible for making sure that all employees are registered with the Fund. If an employee has been registered and the contributions are paid, then that employee will be able to claim from the fund. The employee does not need a card or any other proof that they have contributed to the Fund. HOW DOES THE FUND HELP EMPLOYEES? Employees who are registered with the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and who have been paying contributions to the Fund, can claim from the Fund if they lose their jobs or cannot work. There are five kinds of benefits covered by UIF:
You can claim unemployment benefits if you have been dismissed or retrenched or if your contract has expired. You cannot claim if you have voluntarily resigned from your job. You can claim illness benefits if you are off work due to illness for two weeks. Benefits are paid from the date on which you stopped working. Maternity benefits can be claimed if you are pregnant and take maternity leave. You can take maternity leave at any time from four weeks before the expected date of birth and you may not work for six weeks after the birth. You can claim adoption benefits if you legally adopt a child younger than two years old and you leave work to look after that child. Only one of the adopting parents can apply for benefits. The wife/husband or minor child of someone who has died can claim death benefits if the deceased paid contributions to the Fund. HOW MUCH MONEY CAN WORKERS CLAIM? If you have been contributing to the Fund for four years or more, then you can claim for up to 238 days. If you have been contributing for a shorter period, then you can claim 1 day for every 6 days that you worked while you were contributing to the Fund. If you take maternity leave, you can only claim up to 121 days. The Fund pays a percentage of the wage/salary that you earned while you were contributing to the fund. The highest amount that can be paid is 58% of what you earned per day. CAN YOU GET AN EXTENSION WHEN YOU HAVE USED UP YOUR BENEFITS? If you have used up your benefits and you are still unemployed or you are still ill, you can apply to have the UIF benefits extended. If you are still unemployed, you need to complete form UF139 listing all the places where you have tried to find work. This form must be submitted to the Department of Labour. If you are still ill, you need to fill in form UF140. Your doctor will have to complete the medical certificate that forms part of this application. If the Department of Labour thinks that there are good reasons for you to get more benefits, then they will approve the application, but this does not happen often. It may help if you can show that:
|
INSTRUCTIONS: |
There are different procedures for claiming the various benefits available: CLAIMING UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS If you want to claim from the Fund you need to go to your nearest Labour Centre. There you will be asked to sign the unemployment register. You will be told when you need to come back and sign the register again. You will have to sign every four weeks to show that you still need to claim the UIF benefits. You must go back to the office and sign the register on the correct date. If you are ill, you must take a doctor's certificate with you to the labour centre. You will be given a white card, which the UIF officer will sign each time you sign the register. If everything is in order, you should start getting money from the Fund within eight weeks of registering. The money will then be paid every four weeks, until all the benefits are used up. If you don't receive your money in eight weeks, you should phone the Labour Centre and ask them to find out why there is a delay. Remember to have your name and ID number ready. You will receive a slip every time you receive money so that you can see how much you have received and how much you can still get. To claim unemployment benefits you need to have:
If you want to receive unemployment benefits you need to be prepared to:
You need to collect your unemployment benefits from the Labour Centre on the date they said the money will be there. You have to collect the money yourself and you must have your white card and ID book with you. CLAIMING ILLNESS BENEFITS To apply for illness benefits, you need to register at the Labour Centre nearest to you. If you are too ill to go to the office yourself, a friend or family member can get the form from the office and bring it to you to sign. The signed form then needs to be returned to the Labour Office. You will need:
You also need to submit a medical certificate (Form UF86) from your doctor. You need to get your doctor to complete the appropriate section of Form UF86 and then submit this to the UIF claims officer at the Labour Centre. The Department of Labour will consider the application and post Form UF87 to you. You need to complete this form and your doctor needs to sign it. You then submit this form to the claims officer as well. You will be paid benefits for the time that the doctor has booked you off work but not for the first 2 weeks off work. You will also only be paid for the time that you have not received normal wages from your employer. Illness benefits will be paid to you by cheque and posted to you. Remember, you cannot claim illness benefits if your illness was caused by your own misconduct or if you unreasonably refuse treatment or fail to follow the doctor's instructions. If you have lost your job as well as being too ill to work, you need to inform the claims officer of this because you might also be able to claim unemployment benefits for the period not covered by the illness benefits. CLAIMING MATERNITY BENEFITS To claim maternity benefits, you need to register at the Labour Office in person or organise for someone to go in your place. All necessary documents must go with the applicant to the labour office. To register you will need:
When you register, you will be given Form UF92. This form must be filled in by your doctor. You then submit this form to the UIF claims officer at the Labour Office. The claim will be paid by cheque, which will be posted to you. To apply for benefits after the baby is born, you need to complete Form UF95 with help from the doctor who delivered the baby. If you are also unemployed, then you must notify the claims officer. CLAIMING ADOPTION BENEFITS If you want to claim adoption benefits, you need to register with a claims officer at your nearest Labour Centre. You will need to have:
You must apply for the benefits within six months of the adoption order being issued. Adoption benefits are paid by cheque through the post. A form will accompany the payment. This form must be filled in and sent back to the claims officer at the labour centre. CLAIMING DEATH BENEFITS The husband or wife of the deceased worker and any minor children of the worker can claim death benefits from the UIF. You must apply for these benefits within six months of the death of the worker. If you were the husband or wife of the deceased worker, you need to go to the Labour Centre and fill in Form UF126. You will need to have:
If you are the child of the deceased worker, you can claim by completing Form UF127 and submitting it at the Labour Centre. You will need:
The Labour Office will give you Form UF128, which needs to be filled in by the deceased's last employer and then submitted at the Labour Centre. The death benefit is the amount that the worker could have claimed if they were unemployed. This is paid out in one payment. |
|
GOVERNMENT BODY:
|
Department of Labour (The Government of South Africa) |
|
|
Cape Gateway is a government service aimed primarily at citizens of the Western Cape, providing information on local, provincial and national government |  |