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uFiling for Household Employers: The Complete Walkthrough

uFiling is the Department of Employment and Labour's free online portal for UIF. For a household employer it replaces every paper form and bank queue: you register as a Domestic Employer, add your worker once, and then submit the monthly declaration and pay the 2% contribution from one dashboard. This guide walks through each screen — account activation, adding your domestic worker, monthly declarations, payment, and the errors that trip most people up.

Last reviewed June 2026 · wage figures from 1 March 2026

Before you start: what uFiling will ask for

uFiling works best when you sit down with everything at hand. As a Domestic Employer you will need your valid 13-digit South African ID number (foreign domestic employers use a passport number), an email address where all correspondence will be sent, the bank account details and branch code you will pay contributions from, your worker's 13-digit SA ID number, and her employment details — start date, hours and monthly wage.

If you have not yet decided whether online registration is right for you, see our overview of every way to register a domestic worker for UIF — uFiling is one of four routes, but it is the only one that also handles your monthly declarations and payments in the same place.

Step 1: Create and activate your uFiling account

Go to ufiling.labour.gov.za and click Register. Accept the terms and conditions, then complete your personal details exactly as they appear on your ID document, choosing email or SMS as your preferred contact method. The UIF verifies the captured data and sends an activation message — click the link in it to activate the account, then log in with the username and temporary password provided.

On first login the system makes you change the password, and then runs a security vetting process: a short series of questions confirming demographic and historical contact details, checked against Department of Labour records. Answer carefully — failing vetting locks you out until support intervenes (see the errors section below). Once vetting passes, update your personal details and you are in.

Step 2: Register as a Domestic Employer and add your worker

From the menu choose Registrations, then Register, and select Domestic Employer (note: you can only register as a Domestic Employer once per ID number). Verify your details, confirm the qualification criteria, and complete your personal and contact details.

You must add at least one employee to complete the registration. Enter your worker's ID number and click Retrieve — uFiling pulls whatever the UIF already holds for that ID. Confirm her name and date of birth, then complete the employment fields: demographics, start date and salary information. Finally, add at least one beneficiary for the employee (a family member who would receive benefits if she died) — you can load up to four.

Click Submit, and the Department emails you the new employer's UI reference number once the application is processed. If your worker was already registered under a previous employer, that history stays on her record; your registration simply adds the new employment.

Already have a UIF reference number from an old paper registration? Don't re-register — use Registrations, then Add, select Domestic Employer and capture your ID number and existing UI reference to link it to your profile.

Step 3: Monthly declarations in the Declarations Manager

Employers must declare employee details to the UIF every month, by no later than the 7th of each month for the preceding month. In uFiling this happens in the Declarations Manager: click it on the menu, select your name as the employer, and the screen shows your employee and declaration summary.

uFiling automatically prepares and populates each month's declaration from the employer and employee details you have captured. One quirk to understand: declarations themselves cannot be edited directly. If the wage or hours change, you update the employee's record (Edit/View next to her name), and the declaration updates in turn.

The View Returns screen shows a colour-coded grid of up to five years of periods: green means the declaration was submitted, red means a problem — missing or no declarations for that period — amber means a declaration for that month was submitted through another channel, and grey means no declarations. Red periods block everything after them: you must resolve the oldest outstanding period before uFiling will accept later declarations. When a period is correct, open it and click Submit; the status changes to Submitted and you are ready to pay.

Step 4: Pay the 2% (1% + 1%)

The contribution is 2% of your worker's remuneration — 1% you deduct from her wage and 1% you add yourself — and it must reach the Fund by the 7th of the month (calculated on earnings up to the R17,712 monthly ceiling). uFiling generates the correct payment references automatically, which is the main reason to pay through it rather than by guesswork EFT.

Click Pay next to the declaration to see outstanding amounts. Pay Online For Period creates an electronic payment instruction against the bank account on your profile: select the account, confirm the amount, click Pay, and then — the step everyone forgets — log in to your banking app and approve the payment before it expires. Manual Payment For Period is for recording a payment you made outside uFiling, so the Fund can match it to the period.

If no bank account is listed, add one under the List of Bank Accounts before paying. All transactions appear under Payment History, where the status updates to PAID once cleared. One important exception: if you are registered with SARS as an employer (PAYE), you can still submit returns on uFiling but must pay SARS directly — uFiling payments are for employers who pay the UIF itself, which is the normal position for households.

Common uFiling errors and how to fix them

These are the failures household employers hit most often, with the fixes the UIF itself prescribes:

• "We can't log you in until you activate your account" — the activation never completed. Email ufilingsupport@labour.gov.za and the technical team will activate it.
• Failed the vetting questions — send a clear copy of your ID to adminchangerequest@labour.gov.za to be verified manually.
• ID number locked — send a clear copy of your ID to ufilingsupport@labour.gov.za.
• Password locked after three attempts — use Forgot Password under the Login menu; a temporary password goes to your preferred contact method. If those contact details have changed, phone 012 337 1680.
• A period shows red and blocks new declarations — open the oldest red period, add the missing employee or salary information, save and submit it; later periods then unblock.
• uFiling says you owe money although you pay via SARS — this is a known error; report it to ufilingsupport@labour.gov.za.
• An employee who left still shows as active — submit a backdated termination: open the month she left, Edit/View next to her name, set the termination date, update the salary and save.
• Submitted a declaration with the wrong wage — a return can be changed as many times as needed until it is paid; once paid it cannot be reversed, and you correct it via an alteration in the next month's declaration.
• Browser shows the previous user's details — go back on the profile and press F5 to refresh.

Support contacts and arrears

The uFiling call centre operates 07:30–16:00 on weekdays; website and support queries go to 0800 030 007, and general UIF queries about domestic employers to 012 337 1680. Email support runs through ufilingsupport@labour.gov.za.

If you are catching up on years of missed contributions, uFiling will take the outstanding declarations (up to five years back), but the 10% penalty and interest the Fund levies on arrears cannot be paid through uFiling — contact the UIF call centre on 0800 843 843 to settle those directly. The background on penalties is covered in our guide to registering a domestic worker for UIF.

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