For a mother on maternity leave, the useful question is less “how many weeks” and more “when should I start”. The law lets you lodge a UIF maternity claim at any time before your baby is born, or up to 12 months after the birth. Starting early, while you are still at work and your employer is easy to reach, is the single biggest thing you can do to shorten the wait.
Timing your application around the birth
Two older rules still circulate and are both wrong today. Since Parliament amended the UIF law in 2016, you no longer have to apply at least eight weeks before the birth, and the six-month limit has been replaced by 12 months after the date of childbirth. You do need at least 13 weeks of employment before you apply, so a mother who started a new job late in her pregnancy should check that she has reached that point.
One practical catch: the UIF’s own document list for maternity claims includes the baby’s birth certificate. So even if you lodge the claim before the birth, expect the UIF to ask for the birth certificate before it finalises payment, and register the birth at Home Affairs as soon as you can. If you are unsure whether your pre-birth claim can be assessed without it, phone 0800 030 007, the UIF’s call centre.
What the UIF aims for once your claim is complete
The UIF has not published a separate turnaround for maternity claims. Its general service standards, published in 2023, apply: approval within 20 working days once nothing is missing, then 7 to 10 working days to pay. These are targets, not guarantees. Maternity benefits are not paid in one lump sum. You receive them in instalments for up to 121 days, about 17 weeks, and each instalment after the first depends on a monthly continuation request on form UI-4, which the UIF aims to pay within 28 days. The general four-stage process, which is the same for every benefit, is laid out in our stage-by-stage UIF payout timeline.
Hold-ups that mostly affect maternity claims
- The doctor’s section is blank or unsigned. The maternity application includes a section that a medical practitioner must complete. A claim without it cannot be approved.
- The employer has not filled in the UI-2.7 for each month. This form records what your employer pays you while you are on leave, and the UIF needs it per month of leave. Many mothers wait on this one.
- The birth certificate is still outstanding. Late registration of the birth at Home Affairs delays the final step.
- A continuation request is late. If the monthly UI-4 goes in late, the next instalment moves back with it.
The full set of forms, and where to get each one from the Department of Employment and Labour, is on our UIF maternity forms page. Ask your employer for the UI-19, salary schedule and UI-2.7 before you go on leave, while you can still walk down the corridor to collect them.
Loss of a pregnancy late in the term
Losing a baby in the last three months of pregnancy, through miscarriage or stillbirth, now counts for the whole maternity benefit rather than the six weeks allowed before 2016. The same timing rules and targets apply. Maternity claims also do not use up the credit days you would need for an unemployment claim later.
The UIF pays maternity benefits at 66% of your earnings at the date of application, up to the earnings ceiling of R17 712 a month. To estimate your own instalments, use our UIF payment calculator rather than relying on a figure from a friend’s claim.