A maternity claim needs signatures from four people: you, your employer, your bank and the doctor or midwife who confirms the pregnancy or the birth. Each form below has its own job. Knowing who owns which one lets you start the slow ones early, often while you are still at work. All of them can be downloaded free from the official UIF forms folder.
UI-2.3: the maternity application
Who: you, plus a medical practitioner or registered midwife. The UI-2.3 asks for your ID or passport number, contact details, occupation, education level and any previous UIF claim. It also asks whether you are still employed. If you answer yes, the form says your employer must also complete a UI-2.7. If you have already gone back to work, write the date you returned. There is no bank section on this form, because banking details go on the UI-2.8.
What the medical certificate must show
The certificate is a section printed on the UI-2.3 itself, so take the form to your appointment rather than asking for a separate sick note. The doctor or midwife fills in:
- their name, profession, qualifications and professional registration number;
- either a confirmation that you are pregnant and under their care, with the expected due date, or the date you gave birth, had a stillbirth or had a miscarriage;
- their signature, the date, a phone number, their address and a practice stamp.
A missing registration number or stamp is an easy reason for a claim to stall, so check the section before you leave the consulting room. Since the 2016 amendments, a late (third-trimester) miscarriage or a stillbirth earns the full maternity benefit, and this certificate is where the practitioner records it.
The employer’s three documents
- UI-19 and the salary schedule: confirm that you were employed and contributing, and record your pay.
- UI-2.7: records what the employer paid you while you were on maternity leave, broken into calendar months with the gross amount for each. It also gives the date you are expected to return, or did return, to full hours. If your employer pays part of your salary during leave, this form is how the UIF knows.
Ask HR for all three before your leave starts. Payroll staff are easier to reach while you are still at work.
UI-2.8: where the money goes
Your bank completes and stamps the top half, and you sign the authorisation underneath. The maternity benefit is paid at 66% of your earnings, up to the UIF ceiling. To see roughly what that means for your salary, try our UIF payment estimate guide.
UI-4: each month after approval
Once the claim is approved, you ask for each further payment on the UI-4 continuation form. You declare that you have not worked since you applied, apart from any return-to-work date you give, and you update your address or phone number if they have changed. The UI-4 carries its own medical certificate section for the doctor or midwife, typically to record the birth after an application made during pregnancy. The form warns that post-dated forms will not be processed, and that you must report a return to work straight away. If you change banks, add a new UI-2.8.
How soon to apply, and how long payment takes, are covered in our maternity claim timing guide. For the full list of UIF forms, including ones a maternity claim does not use, see our UIF forms index.