UIF vs uFiling: Which portal does your company use?

UIF trips up more small employers than almost any other statutory obligation, and it usually comes down to one misunderstanding: paying UIF is not the same as declaring it. Depending on how your business is set up, you use a different route, and getting the two mixed up leaves your employees unable to claim when they need to.

The contribution itself is simple

UIF is 2% of an employee's earnings, split evenly: 1% deducted from the employee and 1% paid by the employer. It is capped at a monthly earnings ceiling of R17,712, so the most any single employee attracts is R177.12 from each side, R354.24 in total per month.

Two different routes, and this is the part people miss

How you deal with UIF depends on whether you are registered for PAYE.

If you are registered for PAYE

You pay UIF to SARS together with your PAYE and SDL, all on the monthly EMP201. Easy enough. But here is the catch: paying the money to SARS does not tell the Department of Employment and Labour who your employees are. You still have to submit a monthly UIF declaration of employee details, new engagements, terminations and salaries, to the UIF itself. Without that declaration, the fund has no record of your employees, and when someone is retrenched or goes on maternity leave they cannot claim.

If you are not registered for PAYE

Smaller employers who fall below the PAYE threshold, and domestic employers, register and deal with UIF directly through the Department of Labour's uFiling portal at ufiling.labour.gov.za. On uFiling you declare your employees, pay the 2% contribution, and everything happens in one place.

Why the declaration matters more than the payment

When an employee claims from the UIF, the fund checks its records for that person's declared employment and contributions. If you paid faithfully but never declared, or your declarations stopped months ago, the claim stalls and your former employee is left chasing paperwork during an already hard time. Keeping declarations current is the single most useful thing you can do here.

If you are not certain whether your declarations are actually reaching the UIF, that is worth checking now rather than when someone needs to claim. We handle both the payment and the monthly declaration as part of payroll, so the two never drift apart.

This article is general information, not tax or legal advice, and reflects the rules and figures current as at July 2026. SARS, Compensation Fund and Department of Employment and Labour requirements change. Confirm current deadlines and amounts before acting, or get in touch and we'll check your specific situation.