South Africa - How To Apply for Normal Benefits (Unemployment Benefits)

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Procedure

Apply In-Person:

1. To apply for Unemployment benefits in person, the person must visit the office of any nearest labour centre in his/her province.
2. The contact details and address details of the labour centres in a particular province can be found in the following link: Link
3. Find information about any nearest labour centre in your province and visit the office to apply.
4. You will have to first register as a work seeker at the office. Obtain the application form for registering as work seeker, from the concerned department at the office.
5. Make sure that you have all the necessary documents with you, required for the registration. Fill the application with all required details.
6. Submit the application to the concerned authority to proceed for the registration. Once you have registered, you can claim for the benefits from the Unemployment Insurance Fund at the Labour centre itself.
7. Obtain the UI-2.1 form for Unemployment benefits from the Labour centre or click the link to download: Link
8. You have to submit all the documents listed under the “Required documents” section of this page for verification and the completed form, to the UIF officer.
9. At the office of Labour centre, the applicant will have to sign the unemployment register, periodically as instructed by the UIF officer.
10. You will be issued a white card, which you should take with you each time when visiting the labour centre, to get signed by the UIF officer.
11. If you have signed the register properly as directed and all the documents submitted are found in order, you will start receiving the fund within eight weeks of your registration process.
12. If you do not receive your money in eight weeks, you should phone the Labour Centre and ask them to find out why there is a delay. Remember to have your name and ID number ready.
13. You will receive a slip every time you receive money so that you can see how much you have received and how much you can still get.
14. You need to collect your unemployment benefits from the Labour Office on the date they said the money will be there. You have to collect the money yourself and you must have your white card and ID book with you.

Apply Online - How To Apply for Normal Benefits (Unemployment Benefits) Online with Images

1. To apply for Unemployment benefits online, the applicant has to visit the following link: Link
2. Click on “Register” button on the top right corner of the page. ‘Terms & conditions for use of Unemployment Insurance Fund’ will be displayed. Read everything carefully and click on “Yes” check box and click “continue” button to proceed.
3. In the “Register” page, provide appropriate details under respective fields, select “I’m not a robot” check box and click on “Register” button. You will receive a profile activation link and temporary user credentials through your selected contact method.
4. Note the credentials and click on the link to activate your account. Your registration will be successful and you should be logging in using the temporary user credentials, in the page that opens.
5. You will have to change the password on your first login after registration for security purposes. In the “Password change Required” page, enter the new password and hint for your password, then click “Apply” button.
6. For security reasons, you will then have to complete a screening process by confirming certain information about yourself, which will be compared to the data available to the Department of Labour. Click “Continue” button on the message and proceed.
7. Answer all the questions carefully and if you fail at any stage of process, an error message will be displayed as “vetting failed”. In such a case, uFiling support should be sought by clicking “UIF Services Support” option.
8. Once you successfully completed vetting, you will be directed to a page where you can update your personal details before you can proceed to the uFiling website. After updating click “Update” button to proceed.
9. Now proceed to apply for the Unemployment benefits by clicking on the “Apply for Benefits” option under the tab “Benefit Application and Payments” which is on the left. “Apply for Benefits” page will be opened, select which type of Benefit you want to apply for in that page, and click on “Apply” button in the bottom right corner.
10. In the “Application for Benefits” page, the first tab will be “Terms and Conditions”. Read everything carefully and select the “yes” check box and click on “Next” button.
11. In the “Banking Details” tab, verify your bank details and click on “Next” button to continue or click on “Banking Details Incorrect?” button, if your banking details are incorrect and do as instructed in the page, to change the bank details.
12. In the next tab, confirm or update your personal details, including physical and postal addresses and click on “Next” button. Then, Complete the information related to your occupation and qualifications, and click on “Next” button.
13. Update your work seeker information and click on “Submit” button when you are done completing the “Work seeker information“ to send your application to the UIF. You will receive a confirmation message if your application was successfully submitted.
14. If you have signed the register properly as directed and all the documents submitted are found in order, you will start receiving the fund within eight weeks of your registration process.
15. If you do not receive your money in eight weeks, you should phone the Labour Centre and ask them to find out why there is a delay. Remember to have your name and ID number ready.
16. You will receive a slip every time you receive money so that you can see how much you have received and how much you can still get.
17. You need to collect your unemployment benefits from the Labour Office on the date they said the money will be there. You have to collect the money yourself and you must have your white card and ID book with you.

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Required Documents

• Copy of Identity document
• Copy of applicant’s last six month payslips.
• Informed issued in form UI-19 by your employer
• Certificate for the service, from the employer
• Registration proof as a work seeker
• Completed registration form

Office Locations & Contacts

Unemployment Insurance Fund - Head Office
Physical Adsress:UIF Building
230 Lillian Ngoyi Street,
Absa Towers,
Pretoria Central
0002
South Africa
Postal Adsress:The UIF,
Pretoria,
0052
South Africa
Tel: 012 337 1997 (Switchboard), 0800 030 007 (Call Centre)
Fax: 086 713 3000
Email: [email protected] / [email protected] (Ufiling enquiries)
Email: [email protected]? / [email protected] (Normal enquiries)
Website link
Website link

Department of Employment and Labour - Head Office
Physical Adsress:Laboria House
215 Francis Baard Street
PRETORIA,
01001
South Africa
Postal Adsress:Private Bag X117
PRETORIA
0001
South Africa
Tel: (012) 309 4000
Fax: (012) 320 2059
Email: [email protected]?
Website link

Eligibility

• You can claim unemployment benefits if you have been dismissed or if your contract has expired. You cannot claim if you have voluntarily resigned from your job.
• You should have registered as a work seeker in any nearest office of labour centre, before applying to claim Unemployment benefits.

Fees

Please enquire about the fees details in the office you visit to apply.

Validity

Explain the time until which the certificate/document is valid.
e.g. Birth Certificate Valid Forever

Documents to Use

Information supplied by your employer (UI-19): Link
User guide for Registration process, refer Chapters 1 and 2 in the following document: Link

Sample Documents

Please attach sample completed documents that would help other people.

Processing Time

Please explain processing time taken in obtaining the document/certificate.

Related Videos

Videos explaining the procedure or to fill the applications.
Attach videos using the following tag <&video type='website'>video ID|width|height<&/video&> from external websites.
Please remove the '&' inside the tags during implementation.
Website = allocine, blip, dailymotion, facebook, gametrailers, googlevideo, html5, metacafe, myspace, revver,
sevenload, viddler, vimeo, youku, youtube
width = 560, height = 340, Video ID = Can be obtained from the URL of webpage where the video is displayed.
e.g In the following url 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0US7oR_t3M' Video ID is 'Y0US7oR_t3M'.

Instructions

• Bank details may only be captured once on the uFiling system, to update new bank details, download the UI2.8 Form from the Department of Labour website (www.labour.gov.za).
• One portion of the UI2.8 Form must be completed by your bank and the other portion by you. Email the completed UI2.8 Form and your contact details to [email protected].
• You will be asked to sign the unemployment register if you want to claim Unemployment benefits. You will be told when you need to come back and sign the register again.
• You will have to sign every four weeks to show that you still need to claim the UIF benefits. You must go back to the office and sign the register on the correct date.
• If you are ill, you must take a doctor's certificate with you to the labour centre. You will be given a white card, which the UIF officer will sign each time you sign the register.

Required Information

• Personal details
• Banking details
• Occupier information
• Educational details

Need for the Document

The fund offers short-term financial assistance to workers when they become unemployed or are unable to work because of illness, maternity or adoption leave. The fund also assists the dependants of a contributing worker who has died.

Information which might help

If you want to receive unemployment benefits you need to be prepared to:

• Go for training or career counseling if the UIF officer asks you to.
• Be available for work. If you are offered work, you need to be ready to work.
• Go to different companies to ask for work. You will get a form that needs to be signed showing that you have looked for work and that there are no jobs available.

Other uses of the Document/Certificate

Please explain what are other uses of obtaining this document/certificate.
e.g. Birth Certificate can be used as proof of identity.

External Links

Place some external links which might help.

Others

More information which might help people.