UIF Benefits Calculator South Africa
Enter your pay and contribution months. See the daily UIF rate, credit days and tax free total.
UIF unemployment benefit estimate
Unemployment Insurance Fund
How much UIF will you get?
Daily benefit, credit days, and the 238 day split, from the formula the Fund publishes. Paid by the UIF, not your employer, and tax free.
Ordinary unemployment benefits are for a job the employer ended, a contract that ran out, insolvency, or a domestic employer who died. Resignation and absconding do not qualify. The only exception is a resignation the CCMA treated as a constructive dismissal.
Gross pay before deductions. If your pay varies, use the average of the last six months. The Fund caps this at R17,712 a month when it works out the daily rate.
The Fund keeps the real balance on uFiling, and that is the figure to use if you have it. A calendar month estimate assumes those months were contributing days. If you worked part time, paste the remaining days from uFiling instead.
One credit day for every four days you worked as a contributor, capped at 365. Four continuous contributing years fills the tank. A year is about 91 credit days.
Use the unused days the Fund shows for this four year cycle, after any earlier unemployment, illness or reduced work time claims. Maternity does not eat these credits.
I already claimed some UIF in the last four years
The Fund subtracts days already paid for unemployment, illness or reduced work time. Maternity, parental and adoption benefits are delinked and should not be typed here. When estimating, these days come off the credit total. When you paste remaining uFiling days, they only shift the 238 day cut so leftover days pay 20% once the cycle has passed that mark.
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More on this: Retrenchment and Severance Calculator · Income Tax Calculator · BCEA Leave and Pay Calculator · Cost to Hire Calculator
What UIF actually pays when a job ends
This free UIF calculator for South Africa works out the unemployment benefit the Fund publishes, not a guess from your last payslip. Two numbers decide it. Your daily benefit comes from average pay over the last six months, capped at R17,712 a month. Your credit days come from how long you contributed in the last four years, one day for every four days worked, up to 365. The first 238 of those days pay a sliding 38% to 60%. The rest pay 20%.
The retrenchment calculator on this site already estimates the employer package, severance, notice, leave, and a rough UIF gesture from this job only. This page is the other half: the credit ledger, the 238 day split, and a tax free total you can print before you queue at a labour centre.
It is built for ordinary unemployment benefits. Maternity, illness, parental, adoption and reduced work time stay in the questions below, with a pointer to the Department of Employment and Labour. The 1% you and your employer each pay is the Cost to Hire Calculator for a firm, or the Domestic Worker Wage Calculator for a household.
How to calculate your UIF daily benefit
The Department of Employment and Labour fact sheet uses one conversion. Take the average of the last six months, cap it at R17,712, multiply by 12 and divide by 365. That is daily income Y. The income replacement rate is 29.2 plus 7173.92 divided by (232.92 plus Y), kept between 38% and 60%. Daily benefit is Y times that rate. From day 239 the rate is a flat 20% of Y, not of the sliding amount.
| Average monthly pay | Daily income Y | IRR | Daily benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| R5,000 | R164.38 | 47.3% | R77.68 |
| R10,000 | R328.77 | 42.0% | R137.99 |
| R17,712 and above | R582.31 | 38% | R221.28 |
Those daily rates are the official worked shape. R17,712 is the ceiling example on the fact sheet: Y = R582.31, 38%, R221.28 a day. At 20% the same Y pays R116.46 a day. The calculator keeps full precision and shows cents on the daily figures, then rounds the headline total to the nearest rand.
A worked example at the ceiling
Someone who earned at or above R17,712 a month, and who contributed continuously for four years with no earlier claim, has 365 credit days. The first 238 days pay R221.28. The remaining 127 days pay R116.46. That is about R67,455 tax free, over roughly twelve months, paid by the Fund rather than the employer. Drop the contribution history to one year and the same daily rate only lasts 91 days, about R20,136, with no 20% tail because 91 is under 238.
Now R10,000 a month and twelve contributing months. Daily income is R328.77, the rate is about 42%, the daily benefit is R137.99, and 91 credit days total about R12,557. Salary sets the daily amount. Contribution history sets how long it lasts.
How credit days accrue
Section 13 of the Unemployment Insurance Act gives one day’s benefit for every completed four days of employment as a contributor, with a maximum of 365 days in the four year period. The 2016 amendment raised the cap from 238 to 365. The 2018 amendment, in force from March 2019, set the accrual at one per four days. Older calculators that still use one per five days are quoting the 2016 wording.
| Months contributed | Credit days | What that funds |
|---|---|---|
| 1 month | 7 | A short claim, not a waiting period |
| 3 months | 22 | A few weeks of cover |
| 12 months | 91 | About three months of benefits |
| 48 months | 365 | The tank is full, twelve months of credits |
The 14 day rule in section 16 is different. Unemployment must last more than 14 days before ordinary benefits are payable. That is a qualification threshold. This calculator does not subtract 14 from your credits.
How to claim
The papers, UIF Online and the traps that stop a payout are on How to claim UIF in South Africa. Apply within 12 months of the last day at work, register as a work seeker, and use UIF Online (the Department still labels that portal uFiling). A labour centre can process a paper claim if the online record is a mess.
Resignation still does not qualify, unless the CCMA treated it as a constructive dismissal. For the money your employer owes on the way out, open the Retrenchment and Severance Calculator. Leave balances sit in the BCEA Leave and Pay Calculator.
Frequently asked questions
How much UIF will I get if I lose my job in South Africa?
It depends on two numbers the Fund keeps separately: your daily benefit, which comes from your pay, and your credit days, which come from how long you contributed in the last four years. Daily income is your average monthly pay times 12, divided by 365, capped at R17,712. That daily income is multiplied by a sliding income replacement rate between 38% and 60%. The first 238 credit days pay that rate. Any leftover days, up to 365, pay a flat 20%. At the ceiling, that is R221.28 a day for the first 238 days, then R116.46 a day.
How do UIF credit days work?
You earn one credit day for every four days you worked as a contributor, up to 365 days in a four year cycle. Four continuous contributing years fills the tank, about 91 days a year and about 8 days a month. The Fund subtracts days already paid in that cycle for unemployment, illness or reduced work time. Maternity, parental and adoption benefits are delinked, they do not eat your unemployment credits. The real balance sits on uFiling. This calculator can estimate from the months you type, or you can paste the remaining days the Fund shows.
What is the UIF daily benefit formula?
The Department of Employment and Labour publishes it. Daily income Y is monthly pay times 12 divided by 365, using pay capped at R17,712. The income replacement rate is 29.2 + 7173.92 divided by (232.92 + Y), then kept between 38% and 60%. Lower earners sit near 60%. Anyone at or above the ceiling sits at 38%. Daily benefit is Y times that rate. On R17,712 the official worked example is Y = R582.31, 38%, R221.28 a day.
Can I claim UIF if I resign?
Not for ordinary unemployment benefits. Resignation and absconding do not qualify, unless the CCMA treated the resignation as a constructive dismissal. You can still claim later if a later job ends in a way that does qualify, using unused credits from the last four years. Illness, maternity, parental and adoption benefits have their own rules and are not this calculator.
How long can I claim UIF for?
For as many unused credit days as you have, up to 365 in the four year cycle. That is about twelve months only if the tank is full. A year of contributions funds about 91 days. The spell of unemployment must last more than 14 days, which is a qualification rule, not 14 days taken off your credits. Apply within 12 months of the job ending, and as soon as you can. You must register as a work seeker and stay available for work.
Is UIF tax free?
Yes. Unemployment, illness, maternity, adoption and dependants benefits are not taxed as income. The money is paid by the Unemployment Insurance Fund, not your employer, so it does not sit in a retrenchment package. For the employer payout when a job ends, use the retrenchment and severance calculator.
What is the UIF salary ceiling in 2026?
R17,712 a month, unchanged since 1 June 2021. Both the 1% employee deduction and the benefit daily rate use that cap. Earning R25,000 a month does not raise the daily benefit above the R17,712 calculation. The 1% contribution itself is the Cost to Hire and Domestic Worker calculators, not this page.
How do I claim UIF in South Africa?
The step by step, papers, UIF Online and the traps that stop a payout are on the how to claim UIF guide. This calculator is the rand figure: daily rate, credit days and the 238 day split. Apply within 12 months of the last day at work.
Does maternity leave use up my unemployment credits?
No. The Act delinks maternity, parental and adoption benefits from unemployment credits. Those claims pay a flat 66% of daily income, with their own day limits, and they do not reduce the unemployment balance this calculator uses. Illness and reduced work time do use the same credit pool. This page does not model the 66% claims.
I only contributed for a few months. Can I still claim?
If you have unused credit days, yes. A few months funds a short claim, not a full year. Thirteen weeks is the statutory minimum for maternity, not a hard gate on unemployment. Type the months you actually contributed, or the remaining days from uFiling. Part time months that were not contributing days should use the uFiling figure, not the estimate.
This calculator models ordinary UIF unemployment benefits against the Department of Employment and Labour fact sheet and the Unemployment Insurance Act 63 of 2001 as amended: daily income is monthly pay × 12 ÷ 365 capped at R17,712, the income replacement rate slides from 38% to 60%, the first 238 credit days pay that rate and the rest pay 20%, and credits accrue at one day per four days contributed, max 365 in four years. It is general information rather than legal advice. Confirm the award on uFiling or at a labour centre. Last reviewed 26 August 2026. Ceiling unchanged since 1 June 2021.