I surrendered South African ID to Home Affair and am using my passport and work permit. Now the Labour Department is refusing to pay my UIF. Please help!

The long answer

Just to check the following first: The Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town says that foreign nationals who are working on temporary contracts do not pay contributions to UIF and therefore cannot claim. But that foreign nationals with a valid passport/permit must contribute. As you know, the contributions amount to 2% of your salary: 1% is paid by you and 1% by your employer. 

The former UIF Commissioner Teboho Maruping said in 2020 that the UIF generally uses an ID number to capture information and process payment. But in the case of foreign workers, passport numbers are used and those have to be verified with the Department of Home Affairs, and at times with the South African Revenue Services. Maruping said that because of those more complex processes, payments to foreign workers took longer, but that foreign workers who were legally in the country and were properly documented and declared by their employers, would be paid as quickly as possible.

UIF said that to speed up the process, the UIF has appealed to employers to make sure they supply the ID, passport number or work permit number or any other method of identification for their employee as well as proof of how the employee was declared at UIF, and three months’ bank statements showing payment of salary to that employee.  

It seems that the problem may be that because UIF uses IDs to track contributions, there is a mismatch between your former ID and your passport which is disrupting the process. So to prove that the contributions made under the surrendered ID belong to you, you would need to show them some proof of the ID like a copy or any record of the ID.  

This would be besides the other documents you need like your passport and permit, form U1-28 for banking details, form U1-19 to show you are no longer working for your employer and proof of registration as a work-seeker, and your last six payslips.

Legal Aid says the UI-28 banking details form needs to be accompanied by a stamped bank statement to confirm your banking details. They also say that because the Labour Department looks at your past four years of work history to work out your UIF benefit, you need to make sure you have all the necessary U-19 forms from previous employers dating back four years. 

The Scalabrini Centre says that you should keep a detailed record of all your interactions with the Labour Centre, including when you attended, which documents you submitted or received and copies thereof, and what information was provided for you. They say that you must keep a record of what reasons they gave you for not assisting you. 

So where do you start?

First, contact the UIF Toll-Free Call Centre: 0800 030 007 (available from Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 17:00) and ask for the exact reason they are rejecting your claim.

You can appeal a decision by the UIF Claims officer within 90 days of receiving your refusal notice. You can download the UI-12 Notice of Appeal form. This must be filled in and all the necessary supporting documents like ID/passport/permit, the reason you were given for rejection and UI-19 form must be attached. This must be submitted to your local Labour Centre where it will be submitted to the Regional Appeals Committee.

You can also ask one of the following organisations for help and advice:

• Lawyers for Human Rights

Email: info@lhr.org.za

Tel: Musina 015 534 2203

Durban: 031 301 0531

Pretoria: 012 320 2943

Johannesburg: 011 339 1960

Cape Town: 021 424 8561

• Legal Resources Centre

Email:info@lrc.org.za

Johannesburg: 011 836 9831

Cape Town: 021 481 3000.

Durban: 031 301 7572

• The Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI)

Email: sanele@seri-sa.org

WhatsApp, call or send a Please-Call-Me to 073 226 4648 / 071 301 9676 / 083 720 6600

Wishing you the best,
Athalie