The Unemployment Insurance Fund serves the purpose of ensuring that employees can receive financial relief if they find themselves unemployed upon making a UIF claim. But is it possible to cancel your UIF contribution?
Finding yourself suddenly without employment can be a huge burden. Fortunately, the Unemployment Insurance Fund exists to bridge this gap by providing some much-needed financial relief to employees who find themselves in this situation.
As an employee, you are required by law to register with the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and contribute towards the fund if you are employed for more than 24 hours per month. The monthly contribution for UIF is 2% of your gross salary per month.
The monthly contribution for UIF is split between 1% contributed by the employer as well as 1% contribution from you as an employee from your gross salary per month. You must apply for UIF benefits as soon as you become unemployed or within six months after the termination of your employment.
Regarding cancelling your UIF contribution, employers can only cancel UIF when they terminate employment with their employees. However, as long as they have employees who work for them for more than 24 hours per month, they are required to pay UIF. But if an employee voluntarily leaves work, They can stop paying contributions to UIF.
The Daily Benefit Amount (DBA) is multiplied by the number of credit days available to determine the total amount you can get from UIF; thus, total benefit amount = Daily Benefit Amount x credit days.
Credit days are accumulated as follows: you receive one credit day for every four days that you work as a contributor, up to a total of 365 credit days; DBA = 66% of income, with a monthly cap of R17,712.
Every day, you will receive a portion of what you were previously paid when employed. The maximum compensation is 58% of what you would have made each day, but this number primarily applies to lower-paid workers.
The higher your salary, the lower percentage you will receive. The right to claim UIF as a dependent beneficiary of a deceased employee expires six months after the deceased’s passing.