You do not need every UIF form, only the set that matches your reason for claiming. Each claim type has its own application form, and most also need two or three forms from other people: your employer, your bank and sometimes a doctor. Those other people are the slow part, so ask them first. The checklists below name each form and say who fills it in. Every form listed is free to download from the Department of Employment and Labour’s Unemployment Insurance Fund forms folder.
Forms are only part of a claim. Your ID, a service letter, birth or death certificates and similar papers are listed in our UIF requirements checklist.
Lost your job (unemployment)
- UI-19 and the salary schedule: your former employer.
- UI-2.8 banking authorisation: your bank completes the top half, and you sign the bottom.
- UI-2.1 application: you. Our UI-2.1 completion guide goes through it section by section.
- UI-6A after approval: you, every four weeks, to confirm you are still unemployed.
Took a severance package or retired early? An older UIF Basic Guide adds a UI-2.11 declaration for that situation. That form is not in the current online folder, so ask the labour centre whether it still applies to you.
Working fewer hours (reduced work time)
Reduced work time uses the same UI-2.1 as unemployment, but you answer its reduced-hours questions. Your employer supplies the UI-19, the salary schedule and a UI-2.7 showing the lower pay you received. You add the UI-2.8.
Too ill to work (illness)
- UI-2.2 application: you complete your part, and a doctor completes the medical certificate section.
- UI-2.7 (pay received while on sick leave) and UI-19: your employer.
- UI-2.8: bank and you.
- UI-3 continuation: you, for each further period of illness payments.
New baby, adoption or surrogacy
Birth mothers claiming maternity benefits have their own set, covered on our UIF maternity forms page. Adoptive parents use the UI-2.4 application and the UI-5 for continuation. Parents claiming the 10-day parental benefit or the commissioning parental (surrogacy) benefit use the UI-2.9. In each case your employer supplies the UI-19 and the UI-2.7, and you add the bank-stamped UI-2.8. Adoption claims also need the salary schedule.
A contributor has died (dependants)
The surviving spouse or life partner applies on the UI-2.5 within 18 months of the death. A dependent child applies on the UI-2.6 if the spouse does not claim. Where none of those relatives exists, someone the contributor named on a UI-53 nomination form may qualify. The labour centre will tell you whether it also needs a banking form from you.
The order that saves a second trip
- Ask your employer in writing for the UI-19, the salary schedule and, if you are still employed, the UI-2.7.
- Get the UI-2.8 completed and stamped at your bank.
- If you need a doctor’s certificate, have it completed on the form itself.
- Complete your own application form last, so its details match the others.
- Submit the whole set together, then use the continuation form on schedule.
Since 1 April 2025, employee claims can be made online on UIF Online. There the portal captures your application, so the printed application forms matter mainly for claims made at a labour centre. The employer and bank paperwork is still needed either way. Online, you may be asked to upload it rather than hand it over.