If you employ anyone for more than 24 hours a month, whether in a business or in your home, you must register with the Unemployment Insurance Fund and declare that person. Since 1 February 2020 every new employer has to register with the UI Commissioner, even a business that already pays its UIF contributions to SARS. This page covers the employer side only. Workers who want to claim set up their own profile separately, as described in our guide to worker registration on UIF Online.
Which platform employers use in late 2026
Employer services are still on uFiling, at ufiling.labour.gov.za/uif. In May 2026 the Department of Employment and Labour said the employer module, covering registration, declarations and contributions, would move to UIF Online by August 2026. As of early October 2026 we have found no official announcement that this move has happened, and uFiling still offers employer registration and login. Check the department’s news page before you start, because the address you use may change once the migration is confirmed.
Two ways to register a business
- Online through uFiling: choose Register on the uFiling site, create an employer profile and add your business details. Domestic employers receive their UIF reference number by email after registering this way.
- By email: send a completed UI-8 (employer registration) and UI-19 (employee declaration), the company’s CK or CIPC registration document, its SARS registration certificate and a copy of a director’s ID to newui8registrations@labour.gov.za.
Registration gives you a UIF reference number, which identifies your business to the Fund and which your workers will need when they claim. Our page on finding a UIF number explains how that number differs from the payment reference SARS uses.
Paying contributions: SARS or the UI Commissioner
Where the money goes depends on your tax position. An employer that is liable for PAYE or the Skills Development Levy, or that has registered with SARS voluntarily, pays UIF on its monthly EMP201 return to SARS, within 7 days after the end of the month, using the 19-digit payment reference number. Every other employer, which often includes a household with one domestic worker, pays the UI Commissioner directly through uFiling. In both cases the contribution is 2% of each worker’s pay, half deducted from the worker and half paid by you, with any pay above R17 712 a month left out of the calculation. Paying late costs a 10% penalty, and interest is added.
Declaring your workers every month
Registration is not the end of it. You must tell the UIF about each worker, and update that information before the 7th of every month. A declaration covers new hires, changes in pay, terminations, periods of leave and deaths. Employers can declare through the Declarations Manager on uFiling, on a manual or digital UI-19, or, for larger payrolls, by emailing electronic payroll files to declarations@labour.gov.za. Our separate guide to completing the UI-19 form goes through it field by field.
Accurate declarations matter to your staff. When a worker claims, the UIF checks your records and asks you for a UI-19 and a salary schedule; if you never declared that person, their claim stalls until you do.
If you employ a domestic worker
Households follow the same rule: a domestic worker, gardener or carer who works more than 24 hours a month for you must be registered. Domestic employers use form UI-8D rather than UI-8, and the manual route needs only the UI-8D, a UI-19 and your ID, sent to the same registration address. Draft regulations from 2017 proposed letting domestic and small employers declare and pay once a year; confirm with the UIF whether that option applies to you before relying on it.
For help with a registration that has not gone through, email ufiling@labour.gov.za or phone 0800 030 007 during weekday office hours. Registration and declarations are free; you do not need to pay a third party to do them.