UIF Electronic Declarations Specifications

---

Need a cash loan today? Apply online now

---

 

UIF

ELECTRONIC DECLARATION 

SPECIFICATIONS

 

1. Introduction

1. Declaration Submission Mechanisms

1. Declaration Submission Rules

1. Formats in which the submission may be made

1. Standards for both types of comma delimited files

1. Record Types and Sequences

1. Declaration File Record Type Layouts

Creator Record

Employee Record

Employer Record

1. Field Validation Rules

Creator Record

Employee Record

Employer Record

1. Rejection and warning messages

1. Rejection Policy

1. Reporting back to the Creator and the Employer

1. File Naming Conventions

1. Resubmission Policy

General

1. Appendix A

Formula to calculate the check digit for a uif employer reference number:

Appendix B

Formula to calculate the check digit for a 13 digit identity  number:

1. Introduction

The specifications described in this document apply only to electronic returns, and not to manual returns. Manual returns are described in a separate specification document.

This document replaces the earlier Declaration Specification Document Version P.081 issued by the Fund on 8 March 2002, and renamed as version A02. It is applicable with effect from 1 April 2003 to all employers who submit electronic declarations, although declarations complying with these specifications may be submitted from October 2002 onwards.

Employers are every month, by not later than the 7th of the month, required to furnish the UIF with details of all their employees as defined by the Unemployment Insurance Act 63, 2001, which excludes non-natural persons and independent contractors. These details are added to the UIF Employee Database in order to maintain a record of each employee’s employment history, which will form the basis for the payment of benefits in terms of section 57 (2) of the Unemployment Insurance Act 63, 2001. 

Note that the details of all employees, as defined in terms of the Unemployment Insurance Act 63, 2001, are required every month, irrespective of whether they are contributors or non-contributors. Reason codes for non-contributors have been provided in these specifications. 

1. Declaration Submission Mechanisms

The mechanisms that are available for the submission of electronic declarations are:

• Electronically via e-mail to: declarations@uif.gov.za 
• Electronically via FTP to: alg.gov.za

1. Declaration Submission Rules

In the case where submissions are made via an attachment to an e-mail the following rules will apply:

• The attached file must be in one of the two approved formats (see below).
• The “Subject” of the E-mail must be “Declaration” or “Declarations”.

Should the attachment which you intend sending to the Fund exceed 1 Mb, you are requested to contact the UIF Help desk on (012) 337 1680 in order to make special arrangements for the transmission of the e-mail.

In the case where submissions are made via FTP the following rules will apply:

• The file must be in one of the two approved formats (see below).
• The file must be transferred to the following location on:
  • alg.gov.za
  • enter – UI Reference number @ ftp.uif.gov.za
  • enter- password.
• An employer or creator wishing to register as an FTP and/or a Web user for purposes of submitting declarations electronically, must  send an e-mail to- registrations@uif.gov.za  with the following details:
  • The Employer’s UI reference number. (Refer to Rule 8020), 
  • Full first names, surname, residential address and ID Number of the owner or partners,
  • In the case of a company or a close corporation, the registered name and number,
  • E-mail address of contact person, and,
  • Telephone number of contact person.

1. Formats in which the submission may be made

An employer may elect to submit his electronic declaration in one of two formats:

• The SARS format
• The Simple Comma Delimited format.

The differences between the two formats are as follows:

• The SARS codes are omitted from the Simple Comma Delimited Format.
• If a field is “blank” or zero it may be omitted from the SARS format along with it’s associated code. In the Simple Comma Delimited Format, an allowance for this field must be made by inserting a comma.

1. Standards for both types of comma delimited files

• A comma-delimited file layout combined with the described code structure, must be used. 
• The file must be submitted in ASCII format.
• All numeric fields with decimal values (i.e. Rands and cents) must have the decimal point specified. Take note that this is always a point and not a comma.
• All numeric fields with no decimal values (i.e. Rands only), must not have the decimal point specified.
• Alphanumeric fields must always be enclosed in double quotes  (e.g. “O’Reilly”).
• A comma must not precede the first field of a record, and must not follow the last field of a record.
• Every record must be followed by a carriage return character.
• In all cases except for the UI Employer reference number, the leading zeros for numeric fields and the trailing spaces for alphanumeric fields should preferably be truncated, but this is not mandatory.
• Negative values are allowed (the minus sign must be in the leftmost position in the field).
• SARS comma delimited file only: The code and its associated field must not be included in the record if the field does not have a value. The absence of the code and it’s associated field value, implies a zero or space value for the field.
• Simple comma delimited file only: All the fields need to be included in the record. If a field has no value it must be included as a NULL value i.e.  (“xxxxxx”, “zzzzzz”,,1234,1,2). A space or a 0 will be regarded as a value.

1. Record Types and Sequences

The file consists of the following record types:

• Creator record
• Employee detail records
• Employer record

Note that the details for more than one employer can be submitted as part of the same file. The sequence of records for such a multiple employer submission must be as follows:

• Creator record
• Employee detail records for employer A
• Employer record for employer A
• Employee detail records for employer B
• Employer record for employer B
• Employee detail records for employer C
• Employer record for employer C
• Etc.

 

1. Declaration File Record Type Layouts

The rules for each of the fields in the following record types, are described in the next section.

Creator Record

SARS CODE	FIELD NAME	FIELD TYPE AND LENGTH	FIELD STATUS
8000	Record Type	Alphanumeric 4	Mandatory
8010	Format Type	Alphanumeric 2	Mandatory
8015	Version No.	Alphanumeric 3	Mandatory
8020	UIF Reference Number	Alphanumeric 9	Mandatory
8030	Test Live Indicator	Alphanumeric 4	Mandatory
8040	Contact Person	Alphanumeric 30	Required
8050	Contact Telephone Number	Alphanumeric 16	Required
8060	Contact E-mail Address	Alphanumeric 50	Optional
8070	Payroll Month	Numeric 6	Mandatory

Employee Record

SARS CODE	FIELD NAME	FIELD TYPE AND LENGTH	FIELD STATUS
8001	Record Type	Alphanumeric 4	Mandatory
8110	UIF Reference Number	Alphanumeric 9	Mandatory
8200	ID Number	Numeric 13	Required
8210	Other Number	Alphanumeric 16	Required
8220	Alternate Number	Alphanumeric 25	Required
8230	Surname	Alphanumeric 120	Required
8240	First Names	Alphanumeric 90	Required
8250	Date Of Birth	Date 8	Required
8260	Date Employed From	Date 8	Required
8270	Date Employed To	Date 8	Required
8280	Employment Status	Numeric 2	Required
8290	Reason for Non Contribution	Numeric 2	Required
8300	Gross Taxable Remuneration	Numeric 13.2	Required
8310	Remuneration subject to UIF	Numeric 13.2	Required
8320	UIF Contribution	Numeric 13.2	Required
8330	Bank Branch Code	Numeric 8	Optional
8340	Bank Account Number	Numeric 16	Optional
8350	Bank Account Type	Numeric 2	Optional

Employer Record

SARS CODE	FIELD NAME	FIELD TYPE AND LENGTH	FIELD STATUS
8002	Record Type	Alphanumeric 4	Mandatory
8115	UIF Reference Number	Alphanumeric 9	Mandatory
8120	PAYE Number	Numeric 10	Required
8130	Total Gross Taxable Remuneration	Numeric 13.2	Required
8135	Total Remuneration subject to UIF	Numeric 13.2	Required
8140	Total Contributions	Numeric 13.2	Required
8150	Total Employees	Numeric 15	Required
8160	Employer’s Email address	Alphanumeric 50	Optional

1. Field Validation Rules

In most cases, if a field contains no value or an invalid value, a warning message will be issued, but the record will be accepted. The fact that the record is accepted and not rejected, is not stated each time in  the field descriptions below.

Errors that can cause records to be rejected are listed at the end of the rules for the field that can cause the rejection to happen. Errors that cause rejections are limited to the fields that are flagged as ‘mandatory’ in the tables in the above section.

Creator Record

• 8000 – Record Type
  The record type can only be UICR.
  Any other value will cause the entire file to be rejected.

• 8010 – Format Type
  This field identifies comma-delimited format used to create the file. The format type must be either U1 (for the SARS format), or U2 (for the Simple Comma Delimited format).
  Any other values will cause the entire file to be rejected.

• 8015 – Version Number
  This field identifies the version of the declaration used to create the file. This number must be E03 for declarations submitted in accordance with the specifications described in this document.
  Any other value will cause the entire file to be rejected.

• 8020 – UIF Reference Number
  Each Creator must register with the Fund unless the Creator is already registered as an employer. The Registration form is available at any Department of Labour Office and must be completed and posted to the Fund at UIF/WVF, Pretoria, 0052  or faxed to  (012)  337 1912.
  The UIF reference number must be a valid UIF reference number, must be zero filled from the left, and must exclude any non-numeric characters e.g. 123456/8 should be sent as 001234568. The formula to validate this number using a Check Digit routine, is supplied in the appendix to this specification.
  An invalid reference number will cause the entire file to be rejected.

• 8030 – TEST / LIVE Indicator
  The indicator must be either TEST or LIVE. TEST data will be validated but not be stored on the employee database, whereas LIVE data will be validated and stored if accepted.
  Any other value will cause the entire file to be rejected.

• 8040 – Contact Person
  This is a required field for correspondence purposes.

• 8050 – Contact Telephone Number
  This is a required field for communication purposes.

• 8060 – Contact E-mail address
  This is an optional field for correspondence purposes. Confirmation of receipt of the submission will be sent to the creator’s e-mail address in field 8060. If this field is not present, then the confirmation will be sent to the e-mail address of the sender of the e-mail.

• 8070 – Payroll Month
  This is a mandatory field, which identifies the processing month that is being declared. The only acceptable format is CCYYMM.
  An error in this field will cause the entire file to be rejected.

Employee Record

• 8001 – Record Type
  The record type can only be UIWK. Any other value will cause the record to be rejected.

• 8110 – UIF Employer Reference Number
  The UIF reference number must be a valid UIF reference number (see field 8020)
  An invalid reference number will cause the record to be rejected.

• 8200 – ID Number
  This field is mandatory if fields 8210 or 8220 are invalid or not present (see rules 8210 and 8220). The ID number supplied must be a valid 13 digit, bar coded RSA national ID number. Please note that this number is the key to the UI system, without which an applicant cannot claim benefits from the Fund. The employee and employer are still obliged to pay contributions in respect of the employee and to furnish details of the employee to the Fund if the employee does not have an ID number. In this event, either a number for field 8210 or for field 8220 must be supplied to enable the Fund to record and track the contribution payments. If the ID number is invalid or not present, the employee’s details will be stored in a separate database for proof of payment of contributions, without which the employee will not be allowed to claim benefits.
  If no valid ID, Other, or Alternate number is supplied, then the record will be rejected.

• 8210 – Other Number
  This field is mandatory if fields 8200 or 8220 are invalid or not present (see rules 8200 and 8220). This field can contain any other number including a passport number, residence permit, (temporary or permanent), old National ID Numbers, etc.
  If no valid ID, Other, or Alternate number is supplied, then the record will be rejected.

• 8220 – Alternate Number
  This field is mandatory if fields 8200 or 8210 are invalid or not present (see rules 8200 and 8210). This field should contain either the personnel, clock card or payroll number.
  If no valid ID, Other, or Alternate number is supplied, then the record will be rejected.

• 8230 – Surname
  This field is required in order to identify the employee.

• 8240 – First Names
  This field is required in order to identify the employee.

• 8250 – Date Of Birth
  This field is required for statutory reasons, and must be in CCYYMMDD format.

• 8260 – Date Employed From
  This field is required for statutory reasons, and must be in CCYYMMDD format. The date must be the latest date that the employee started work at the employer.

• 8270 – Date Employed To
  This field is required for statutory reasons, and must be in CCYYMMDD format. The date required in this field is the employee’s termination of services date. This date may not exceed the last day of the following processing month, and cannot be less than the date in code 8260. If the employment status code is 01, 09 or 10, then the date employed to is not required. If any other employment status is supplied, then the date employed to is required. Note that remuneration (and contributions) can be received after the processing month in which the contributor’s services were terminated.

• 8280 – Employment Status code
  This field is required and contains the employee’s employment status as at the month end.

The following employment status codes are valid:

Code	Description
01	Active
02	Deceased
03	Retired
04	Dismissed
05	Contract Expired
06	Resigned
07	Constructively Dismissed
08	Employers Insolvency
09	Maternity / Adoption leave
10	Illness leave
11	Retrenched
12	Transfer to another branch
13	Absconded
14	Business Closed

• 8290 – Reason Code for Non-Contribution
  The Reason code for non-contribution is a required field if the UIF contribution amount is zero.

The following reasons for non-contribution codes are valid:

Code	Description
01	Temporary employees (less than 24 hours per month)
02	Learners in terms of the skills development act
03	Employees in the national and provincial spheres of government
04	Employees who are repatriated at the end of their contract of service
05	Employees who earn commission only
06	No income paid for the payroll period
08	Employees who receive a pension payment only

• 8300 – Gross Taxable Remuneration
  The gross taxable remuneration must be accumulated from the same remuneration amounts that make up the total reflected on the SARS tax certificate under code 3699. Note that 100% of the travel allowance and the public office allowance must be accumulated for this field. Gross taxable remuneration must not be zero unless a reason for non-contribution code is present.

• 8310 – Remuneration subject to UIF
  The remuneration subject to UIF is the remuneration on which the UI contribution has been calculated, and is defined in terms of section 1 of the Unemployment Insurance Contributions Act. This remuneration is normally limited to the monthly limit, unless remuneration is received in the current month in respect of processing periods outside of the current month.
  This amount is a required field unless the contributor does not contribute to the Fund and the applicable reason code is shown in field 8290.

• 8320 – UIF Contribution
  This field contains the total of the employer and the employee UIF contribution in respect of the employee. If present, this amount must be 2% of the remuneration subject to UIF (field 8310). This amount is a required field unless the contributor does not contribute to the Fund and the applicable reason code is shown in field 8290.

• 8330 – Bank Branch Code
  This is the bank branch code where the employee’s bank account is held. It is an optional field, which, along with fields 8340 and 8350, will result in more efficient benefit payments if supplied. Valid branch codes as per the ACB specifications should be supplied.

• 8340 – Bank Account Number
  This is the employees’ bank account number.

• 8350 – Bank Account Type
  This is the employee’s bank account type.

  The account types as per the ACB specification manual are:

1 = Current (Cheque) account.

2 = Savings account.

3 = Transmission account.

4 = Bond account.

6 = Subscription Share account.

Employer Record

• 8002 – Record Type

The record type can only be UIEM.

Any other values will cause all the employee records for the same UIF reference number to be rejected.

• 8115 – UIF Employer Reference Number

The UIF reference number must be a valid UIF reference number (see field 8020) 

An invalid reference number will cause this record, as well as all employee records for the same reference number, to be rejected.

• 8120 – PAYE Employer Number

If registered with SARS, the Employer’s PAYE-reference number, under which employees tax is deducted and paid over to SARS, must be reflected. This number starts with a “7” and must be a valid reference number as supplied by SARS. If the employer is not registered with SARS, then this number will not be present.

• 8130 – Total Gross Taxable Remuneration

This is the total of all fields 8300 in the associated employees’ records.

• 8135 – Total Remuneration subject to UIF

This is the total of all fields 8310 in the associated employees’ records.

• 8140 – Total UIF Contribution

This is the total of all fields 8320 in the associated employees’ records.

• 8150 – Total Number of Employee records

The total number of employee records must equal the number of employee records supplied.

• 8160 – Employer’s e-mail Address

This is an optional field for correspondence purposes. If rejection and warning messages are generated, they will be sent to the employer’s e-mail address in field 8160. If field 8160 is not present, then the messages will be sent to the creator’s e-mail address in field 8060. If field 8060 is not present, then the messages will be sent to the e-mail address of the sender of the submission.

1. Rejection and warning messages

Rejection and warning messages will be printed per error in the same sequence that the records are stored in the file, and in the following format:

• Details of the file name, the declaration and the number of records processed under the relevant employer reference number. 
• Errors will be listed according to the Record – i.e. the Creator / Employer / Employee record identification fields.
• Error types/description of the rejection/warning and whether the record or data is rejected.  
• Line number (the actual line in which the defective data is submitted starting with the Creator record as line number 1 and the first Employee Record as line number 2).
• Surname of the employee followed by:
• ID Number or Personnel/Payroll  Number or Other Number  (whichever number is present).

Note that where errors are encountered in fields 8200 (ID Number), 8210 (Other Number) or 8220 (Alternate number), the data WILL NOT be rejected and discarded but will be stored in a secondary for retrieval when the employee applies for benefits.

Only the field number, the description of the rejection / warning, and the action fields are specified in the table below for each error / warning message that can occur. The record identification fields will be printed on the actual messages that are sent to the creator / employer.

FIELD	REJECTION / WARNING DESCRIPTION	ACTION
	CREATOR MESSAGES
8000	The creator record type can only be UICR	Rejected
8010	The format type can only be U1 or U2	Rejected
8015	The version number can only be E03	Rejected
8020	The UIF reference number is invalid	Rejected
8030	This field can only be TEST or LIVE	Rejected
8040	The contact person’s name is omitted	Warning
8050	The contact telephone number is omitted	Warning
8060	The contact e-mail address is omitted	Warning
8070	The processing month and year is invalid	Rejected
	EMPLOYEE MESSAGES
8001	The employee record type can only be UIWK	Rejected
8110	The UIF reference number is invalid	Rejected
8200	The ID number is present, but is invalid	Warning
8200	No ID number, Other number or Alternate number is present	Rejected
8210	No ID number, Other number or Alternate number is present	Rejected
8220	No ID number, Other number or Alternate number is present	Rejected
8230	The surname is omitted	Warning
8240	The first names are omitted	Warning
8250	The date of birth is invalid	Warning
8250	The employee is younger than 15 years	Warning
8260	The date employed from is invalid, or is dated in the future	Warning
8270	The date employed to is invalid, and field 8280 is not 01, 09 or 10	Warning
8270	The date employed to is valid, and field 8280 is 01, 09 or 10	Warning
8280	The employment status is invalid	Warning
8290	The reason code for non-contribution is invalid	Warning
8290	The reason code for non-contribution is zero, and field 8320 is zero	Warning
8300	The gross taxable remuneration is zero, and field 8290 is zero	Warning
8310	The remuneration subject to UIF is zero, and field 8290 is zero	Warning
8320	The UIF contribution is zero, and field 8290 is zero	Warning
8320	The UIF contribution is not 2% of the remuneration subject to UIF	Warning
8350	The bank account type is invalid	Warning
	EMPLOYER MESSAGES
8002	The employer record type can only be UIEM	Rejected
8115	The UIF reference number is invalid	Rejected
8120	The PAYE employer number is invalid	Warning
8130	The total gross taxable remuneration is not equal to the total of all fields 8300	Warning
8135	The total remuneration subject to UIF is not equal to the total of all fields 8310	Warning
8140	The total UIF contribution is not equal to the total of all fields 8320	Warning
8150	The total number of employees is not equal to the number of employees	Warning

1. Rejection Policy

If mandatory information is invalid or omitted from the creator record, then the whole file will be rejected, and the creator must correct the errors, and resubmit the whole file.

If mandatory information is invalid or omitted from the employer record, then the employer record and all associated employee records will be rejected, and the creator/employer must correct the errors, and resubmit the rejected employer and employee records.

If mandatory information is invalid or omitted from the employee record, then the employee  record will be rejected, and the creator/employer must correct the errors, and resubmit the rejected employee records.

If non-mandatory data is rejected, or warnings are issued, the incorrect data will not be written to the main UIF database, but will be stored on a secondary database for reference purposes. The contributor will not be able to claim benefits until the error has been corrected, and the data transferred to the main UIF database. The creator/employer must correct the errors (or warnings) in the submission for the next month.

1. Reporting back to the Creator and the Employer

The Fund will always send an e-mail to the creator’s e-mail address (field 8060) confirming receipt of the declaration submission. If field 8060 is not present, then the confirmation will be sent to the e-mail address of the sender of the e-mail.

If rejection and warning messages are generated, they will be sent to the employer’s e-mail address in field 8160. If field 8160 is not present, then the messages will be sent to the creator’s e-mail address in field 8060. If field 8060 is not present, then the messages will be sent to the e-mail address of the sender of the submission.

1. File Naming Conventions

The name of the file for both e-mail and FTP submissions must be made up as follows: uuuuuuuu.nnn

Where:  uuuuuuuu = UIF reference number

This is the number supplied to each Employer on registration with the Fund and is always used on any correspondence from the UIF. The last 8 digits of the creator’s UIF Reference number (field 8020) must be used. Only numeric digits are allowed and the  slash between the last two digits  must be excluded.

nnn = File Number

The file number is a 3 digit numeric number, which serves to make the file name unique where more that one file is submitted under the same UIF reference number. In the normal course of events, this file number can be incremented by 1 each time a submission is made for subsequent months, or if an additional submission is made in order to resubmit records that were rejected in a previous submission.

It is important to know that if a file is sent more than once with the same file name, the last file received will be used, and it will overwrite all previously sent files with the same file name.

See also the Resubmission policy below.

For example, the third submission by a creator with a UIF reference number of 123456/8 must have the following file name: 01234568.003

1. Resubmission Policy

If multiple submissions are made for a given month, the second and subsequent submissions with the same file name will overwrite any previous submissions.

If corrections need to be made to a submission, the errors in the original file can be corrected, and the whole file can be resubmitted with the same file name, in which case the original file will be overwritten.

Alternatively, only the adjustments to the original submission can be submitted in a new file using a different file number, in which case the data will be added to the previous submission.

Adjustments to a declaration may be submitted in the same or in subsequent payroll months.

1. General

It is the employer’s responsibility to ensure that the correct information is submitted to the Fund in each declaration. All submissions must comply with this specification.

Further information is contained on the Fund’s Website  – www.labour.gov.za  which also includes a Basic Guide to Declarations. The Fund has also created a special Declaration Unit to deal with problems and enquiries associated with the submission of electronic declarations. Please use the following numbers for assistance in this regard:

(012) 337 1685/86/87/88/89/90/91/92/93/94/95

Payroll Developers and Administrators are also advised to consult the latest version of the EMP  10 issued by the South African Revenue Services for further information.

Appendix A

Formula to calculate the check digit for a uif employer reference number:

ALGORITHM FOR DETERMINING/VALIDATING CHECK DIGIT FOR 8-DIGIT EMPLOYER REFERENCE_NUMBER

The algorithm functions as follows using Employer Reference Number 1916733/3 as an example:

1. Multiply the first 7 digits of the employer reference number (reading from left to right) as follows and mod each answer by 11 (i.e. the remainder after dividing by 11):

1. Multiply digit 1 by 1 and mod by 11: (1 * 1) mod 11 = 1
2. Multiply digit 2 by 2 and mod by 11: (9 * 2) mod 11 = 7 
3. Multiply digit 3 by 4 and mod by 11: (1 * 4) mod 11 = 4 
4. Multiply digit 4 by 5 and mod by 11: (6 * 5) mod 11 = 8 
5. Multiply digit 5 by 7 and mod by 11: (7 * 7) mod 11 = 5 
6. Multiply digit 6 by 8 and mod by 11: (3 * 8) mod 11 = 2 
7. (3 * 2) mod 11 = 6 

1. Sum each result from a) [See calculations I. to VII.]:
   1 + 7 + 4 + 8 + 5 + 2 + 6 = 33

1. Should the result in b) be greater than 10 then mod the result in b) by 10 (i.e. the remainder after dividing by 10):
   (33 mod 10) = 3

1. The result from c) must be equal to the last digit in the Employer Reference Number (i.e. 3) for the employer reference number to be valid.

Appendix B

Formula to calculate the check digit for a 13 digit identity  number:

According to the provisions of the Identification Amendment Act, 2000 (Act No. 28 of 2000, which was promulgated on 13 October 2000) all forms of identity documents other than the green bar-coded identity document are invalid. In accordance with the legislation, the control figure which is the 13th digit of all identity numbers which have 08 and 09 is calculated as follows using ID Number 6407150083005 as an example:

1. 1. Add all the digits in the odd positions (excluding last digit).
      6 + 0 + 1 + 0 + 8 + 0 = 15
   2. Move the even positions into a field and multiply the number by 2.

475030

                  x  2

950060

1. 1. Add the digits of the result in b).
      9 + 5 + 0 + 0 + 6 + 0 = 20
   2. Add the answer in a) to the answer in c).
      20 + 15 = 35
   3. Subtract the second digit (i.e. 5) from 10.  The number must tally with the last number in the ID Number.  If the result is 2 digits, the last digit is used to compare against the last number in the ID Number.  If the answer differs, the ID number is invalid.