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How to Register Your Domestic Worker for UIF

If your domestic worker, nanny, gardener or housekeeper works for you for more than 24 hours a month, South African law requires you to register with the Unemployment Insurance Fund and pay monthly contributions. The good news: registration is free, there are four ways to do it, and the monthly cost is small — 2% of the wage, half of which comes off the worker's pay. This page walks you through every route, the forms you need, and what happens if you have been putting it off.

Last reviewed June 2026 · wage figures from 1 March 2026

Who must register — the 24-hour rule

Any employee who works for you for more than 24 hours per month must be registered with the UIF. That includes full-time and part-time domestic workers, nannies, gardeners, housekeepers, au pairs and carers working in a private household. If your gardener comes one morning a week for four hours, he is under the threshold; if your domestic worker comes two full days a week, she is well over it and registration is compulsory.

The contribution is 2% of the worker's monthly remuneration: you deduct 1% from her wage and add 1% of your own. Contributions are calculated on earnings up to a ceiling of R17,712 per month — for a typical domestic wage you will simply pay 2% of the actual wage. On a wage of R5,000 a month, that is R50 from the worker and R50 from you: R100 in total.

Remember that UIF is separate from the wage itself. From 1 March 2026 the National Minimum Wage is R30.23 per hour, and it applies in full to domestic workers. Conditions of employment for the sector — hours, leave, notice — are governed by Sectoral Determination 7 under the Basic Conditions of Employment Act.

What you need before you start

Have these ready, whichever route you choose — it turns registration into a 20-minute job rather than a week of back-and-forth:

• Your own 13-digit South African ID number (or passport if you are a foreign employer)
• Your worker's 13-digit SA ID number, or passport / asylum seeker permit if she does not have an SA ID
• Your residential and postal address, email address and cellphone number
• Your worker's employment details: start date, hours worked per month, and the monthly wage
• Your bank account details and branch code if you plan to pay online through uFiling

Route 1: Register online with uFiling (fastest)

uFiling (ufiling.labour.gov.za) is the Department of Employment and Labour's free online portal. You create a user account, register yourself as a Domestic Employer, add your worker as an employee, and from then on submit declarations and pay the contributions from the same dashboard. You can only register as a Domestic Employer once against your ID number, and the UIF emails you your employer reference (UI) number once the application is processed.

This is the route we recommend for almost every household, because the same login handles the monthly declarations and payments you are required to make anyway. We have a full step-by-step uFiling walkthrough for household employers covering account activation, adding your worker, monthly declarations and payment.

Routes 2–4: Email, post or visit a Labour Centre

If you would rather work on paper, download two forms from www.labour.gov.za: the UI-8D (application for registration as an employer of workers in a private household) and the UI-19 (the declaration of your employee's details — name, ID number, start date and wage). Complete and sign both.

Email: send the completed UI-8D and UI-19, with a copy of the IDs, to domestics@uif.gov.za — the UIF's dedicated mailbox for domestic employers. The Department has also published Newui8registrations@labour.gov.za as an address for new employer registrations; either way, keep your sent email as proof of the date you registered.

Post: mail the forms to The UIF, Pretoria, 0052 (the Department also lists PO Box 1851, Pretoria, 0001 for registrations). Post is the slowest route and gives you the least proof, so use it only as a last resort.

In person: take the forms and ID copies to your nearest Labour Centre, where staff will help you complete and lodge them. For help with any route, phone the UIF on 012 337 1680.

Step-by-step: from unregistered to compliant

Here is the whole process in order:

• 1. Check the threshold: does your worker work more than 24 hours a month for you? If yes, carry on.
• 2. Gather both ID numbers, the start date, the monthly wage and your contact details.
• 3. Choose a route: uFiling online, email (domestics@uif.gov.za), post, or your nearest Labour Centre.
• 4. Paper routes: complete and submit the UI-8D (you) and UI-19 (your worker). uFiling: register a user account, then register as a Domestic Employer and add your worker — at least one employee must be added to complete the registration.
• 5. Receive your UIF employer reference number (uFiling emails it to you; paper applicants receive it from the Fund).
• 6. Start declaring and paying: 2% of the wage (1% deducted from the worker + your 1%) must reach the UIF by the 7th of every month for the previous month.
• 7. Update the UIF whenever the wage changes, and submit a termination declaration on the UI-19 (or via uFiling) when the worker leaves — her benefit claims depend on it.

Deadlines, penalties and catching up on arrears

Register as soon as employment begins — your first declaration and payment fall due by the 7th of the month after the first month worked, and you cannot meet that deadline unregistered. Monthly employee returns are likewise due by the 7th of each month for the preceding month.

Not registering is not a paperwork slip; it is an offence. Employers who fail to pay contributions face a 10% penalty on the outstanding back contributions plus interest calculated daily, and non-compliance can be punished by a fine, imprisonment or both. It also leaves your worker unable to claim unemployment, illness or maternity benefits when she needs them most.

If you should have registered years ago, the practical fix is straightforward: register now and declare the back periods with the wages paid in each. uFiling lets you submit outstanding declarations going back five years. The Fund's finance section will then calculate the penalty and interest owed on the arrears — these are settled with the UIF directly (call 0800 843 843), not through uFiling. Catching up voluntarily is far cheaper than waiting for the worker to lodge a complaint.

Don't forget COIDA — the second compulsory registration

UIF is not the only registration a household employer must do. Since the Constitutional Court's Mahlangu judgment (19 November 2020), domestic workers are covered by the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act, retrospective to 27 April 1994. All employers of domestic workers must register with the Compensation Fund and submit annual returns — and unlike UIF, there is no 24-hour threshold. Registration is done through www.labour.gov.za; the Compensation Fund call centre is 0860 105 350.

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