My wife never received payslips from her employer, how will she receive her UIF benefits if it turns out her employer never registered her?

The long answer

To start with the absence of a payslip: 

A home-care worker is considered a domestic worker. The Basic Conditions of Employment Act, which covers all workers in South Africa, including domestic workers, states that a worker must receive a written payslip on pay day. This payslip should set out the employee’s details, the ordinary and overtime hours worked during the payment period, the rate of pay and any deductions made by the employer. 

A home-care worker must be registered for UIF if they work for more than 24 hours per month. It is not a choice that an employer can make.

The employee and the employer must each contribute 1% of the employee’s income to the UIF. It is the employer’s responsibility to deduct these contributions. LegalWise emphasises that if the employer has not deducted these contributions, the employer will be held personally liable to pay the whole amount to the UIF. The employer can be fined for failure to make the deductions.

If the employer has not registered your wife for UIF, she will not be able to claim maternity benefits from UIF.

So the first step is to find out if she has been registered for UIF and if deductions have been made.

Scorpion Legal gives a step-by-step online guide to check if you are registered for UIF: 

• Visit ufiling.labour.gov.za and register if you haven't already done so

• Follow the instructions that they send you, via email or SMS 

• To verify your identity, you will need to answer the UIF verification questions. 

• Enter the personal information that they request

• Enter the information you just created to access the UIF website

• After your profile is active, select "View My UIF contributions" under the "Employment" tab 

• Press the "Get Declarations" button. A new screen with many months displayed will appear. The exact amount contributed will not be displayed. The details of your remuneration for each month should be indicated in green under each one. This indicates that your UIF deductions are being covered by your employer. You will need to wait and return later to obtain confirmation if the information is grey, which indicates that it is still waiting. Your employer did not pay your UIF contribution for that month if it reads "No Information" in red under the month.

Your wife can also visit the nearest Labour Department office in person. The clerk will ask for her ID number and UIF registration number. Your wife should ask them to check whether or not she was registered for UIF, and whether her employer has been paying over her contributions.

If she finds that her employer has not registered her with the UIF, she must report her employer to the Department of Labour and lodge a complaint. She should have her ID and employment details ready. 

Call: 080 003 0007

Email: domestics@uif.gov.za

The Department of Labour can start legal proceedings and conduct audits and inspections to force the employer to register your wife retroactively – from the time she started working for the employer – and to pay over all the money that should have paid to UIF for the four years she has worked.

Once the employer has made the necessary back payments and the contributions are up to date, your wife can apply for UIF maternity benefits. The Labour Department says that an employee may claim maternity benefits for a period of 121 days. She must claim within 12 months of giving birth, but she can make her claim at any time before or after giving birth. 

Gawie Le Roux says that the UIF maternity benefit generally covers a period of approximately four months. It will be between 38% and 58% of a monthly salary, depending on how much you earn.

Hopcal says that it takes three to six weeks from the date that the application for maternity benefits is made for the application to be approved and for the first payment to be made. Once the application has been approved, you have to submit proof that you are still on maternity leave each month.

Hopcal gives the following list of documents needed to claim maternity benefits:

• 13-digit bar-coded ID or passport; 

• Form UI-19 (completed by employer); 

• Form UI-2.7 (completed by employer); 

• Form UI-2.3 (application form – this is a yellow form that needs to be completed and submitted. The Department of Labour will only accept the “original” yellow form); 

• Form UI-2.8 (for banking details – this form has a section that should be completed by your bank to verify your account to which the money will be transferred). 

• Form UI-4 (follow-up form – This is a yellow form and needs to be completed and submitted. The Department of Labour will only accept the “original” yellow form; and 

• Medical certificate from a doctor or birth certificate of the baby.

And finally, the employer is obliged to hold your wife’s job open for her to return to after maternity leave.

Wishing you the best,
Athalie