UIF Notice: Manual UI-19 Discontinued

The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has announced that starting from October 1, 2022, all Gauteng Labour Centers will no longer accept manual UI-19 forms. These forms are typically used to update employee information for the purpose of claiming a UIF benefit.

It is important to note that this notice was not discussed with the Payroll Authors Group of South Africa (PAGSA) and cannot be found on the UIF website at this time. The notice was shared with the PAGSA by one of its members. The PAGSA has sent an urgent email to senior UIF officials to inquire about the implementation of this notice, but has not yet received a response.

The notice consists of two pages, with the first page containing some confusing language. It includes a sentence copied from section 56(3) of the Unemployment Insurance Act, which states that “every employer…in terms of subsection (1)” must provide certain information. However, it is unclear what exactly is meant by “all information” in this context. Is it referring to the detailed information specified in the E03 specification for monthly employee declaration files, or is it referring to the subset of information specified for the UI-19 form? The full section 56 of the Unemployment Insurance Act is included in the appendix for reference.

The authority of the UI “Management” that issued this notice to discontinue the manual UI-19 forms based on section 56 of the Act is uncertain. However, the most important concern is determining what actions should be taken from October 1, 2022. It should be noted that the notice specifically mentions “all Gauteng Labour Centers,” which implies that UI-19 forms will still be accepted at Labour Centers in other parts of the country, at least for the foreseeable future.

The second page of the notice contains a poor copy of Chapter 1 of the ‘uFiling System User Guide,’ which provides three steps to assist employers in registering for uFiling. It is assumed that the purpose of this notice is to inform employers who are not registered for uFiling to do so as soon as possible, or at least before needing to modify or update employee information using the manual UI-19 forms, as this option will no longer be available.

More information will be provided as it becomes available.