South Africa UIF Contribution & Benefit Calculator

About the South Africa UIF Contribution & Benefit Calculator

Work out the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) contributions on an employee’s pay in South Africa the way SARS sets them: 1% is deducted from the employee and the employer adds 1%, on remuneration up to R17 712 a month (R212 544 a year) — at most R177,12 each a month. Enter the month’s pay, or a week’s or two weeks’ for staff paid that way (the ceiling is still the month’s), and see each side’s share, the total for SARS and the date the EMP201 payment is due.

For a whole payroll, paste one employee a line and get every employee’s UIF and the totals of the EMP201’s UIF line. For a claim, the Benefits tab estimates unemployment benefits with the Department of Employment and Labour’s own formula — the average of your last six months’ pay, an income replacement rate that falls from 60% to 38% as pay rises, and one credit day for every four days you worked — and maternity, parental and adoption benefits at 66%. Nothing you type leaves your browser.

Without a pass the page gives a free preview of your own result: the rules, the ceiling, the credit days, the due date and the checks, with every amount hidden until you unlock it with a Premium pass.

Who pays UIF, and on what

Every employer and every employee the Unemployment Insurance Contributions Act applies to contribute each month: the employee 1% of the remuneration paid, deducted from the pay, and the employer 1% on top, both paid to SARS together. Remuneration above R17 712 a month is left out, so R177,12 each is the most a month carries (SARS).

Remuneration for UIF is the PAYE remuneration of the Fourth Schedule without commission, pensions, superannuation and retiring allowances, and the amounts in paragraphs (a), (cA), (d), (e) and (eA) of the Income Tax Act’s definition of gross income, such as annuities and lump sums paid on leaving a job or retiring (SARS employer guide).

The Act does not apply to an employee who works fewer than 24 hours a month for the employer, to officers and employees of the national and provincial government under the Public Service Act, or to the holders of public office it names (the President and Deputy President, Ministers and Deputy Ministers, members of Parliament and of provincial legislatures, Premiers and MECs, municipal councillors and traditional leaders). Domestic workers are covered too, when they work 24 hours a month or more for the household.

Paying it: the EMP201

An employer registered with SARS for PAYE or SDL (or registered voluntarily) pays UIF with the monthly EMP201, with the PAYE and SDL of the same month, within seven days after the end of the month; when the 7th is a Saturday, a Sunday or a public holiday, by the last business day before it. Other employers pay the same contributions to the Unemployment Insurance Commissioner, and every employer declares its employees to the UIF on the UI-19 (SARS employer guide).

A contribution paid late carries a 10% penalty and interest at the prescribed rate. The employer may not deduct more than the employee’s 1%, may not charge the employee a fee for it, and may not deduct arrear contributions from the employee’s pay after the end of the financial year they were due in. With weekly or fortnightly pay the employer deducts at each payday, but the ceiling is the month’s (Unemployment Insurance Contributions Act, sections 6 and 7).

How a UIF claim is worked out

The UIF takes your average pay over the last six months before the job ended, counts it up to R17 712 a month, and turns it into a daily income: Y1 = pay × 12 ÷ 365. Its income replacement rate is IRR = 29,2 + 7 173,92 ÷ (232,92 + Y1): 60% for the lowest pay, falling to 38% at the ceiling. The daily benefit is Y1 × IRR (Department of Employment and Labour).

You earn one credit day for every four days you worked as a contributor, at most 365 days in the four years before the job ended, so four years of work earn the full 365 (Labour Laws Amendment Act, section 13(3)); days already paid in those four years are taken off. Under the Act the first 238 days are paid at the IRR and the rest of the credit days at a flat 20% (Unemployment Insurance Amendment Act, section 12(3)(d)).

Apply within 12 months after the job ends, register as a work-seeker, and confirm each month that you are still out of work. Unemployment benefits are paid when the employer ended the job or the contract expired — not after a resignation or absconding, unless a constructive dismissal is proven (know your UIF rights).

Maternity, parental and adoption benefits

These pay 66% of your pay counted up to R17 712 a month, as a top-up: the UIF pays the difference between your normal pay and what your employer still pays during the leave, never more than the 66% (fact sheet). Maternity benefits are paid for at most 121 days (17,32 weeks) — also after a miscarriage in the third trimester or a stillbirth — and do not use up your credit days. Parental benefits cover 10 consecutive days for a parent who did not give birth: a father registered as the child’s father, a parent through a surrogacy agreement, or the adoptive parent of a child under two. Adoption benefits cover 10 consecutive weeks for one adoptive parent of a child under two. Parental and adoption benefits are paid up to the credit days you have, but do not use them up (section 13(5A)). Each needs at least 13 weeks of employment before you apply; with less, nothing is payable yet (Labour Laws Amendment Act).

The Constitutional Court has declared the maternity, parental and adoption leave and benefit sections invalid, with the order suspended so that Parliament can change them; until it does, the benefits are paid as described here (judgment).

Other countries

Employer and employee contributions elsewhere: Philippines SSS and India PF and ESI.

Limitations

• Contributions follow SARS’s rules for employers registered with SARS; employers registered with the Unemployment Insurance Commissioner pay the same contributions there instead.
• A benefit estimate follows the published formula. The UIF works out the real claim from your employer’s declarations and payslips, and may pay differently, for example when several employers declared you.
• Illness, dependants’ and reduced-work-time benefits, and commissioning parental benefits, are not estimated. Benefits use pay up to R17 712 a month.
• The due date counts the public holidays of the Public Holidays Act; a day the President declares for one year (an election day, for example) is not included.
• PAYE and the Skills Development Levy are not worked out here.

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