Forget About uFiling — It Isn't Working

There comes a point when you have to stop fighting with a system and start dealing with the reality in front of you.

For South African employers trying to keep their UIF affairs compliant, I believe we have reached that point with uFiling.

Forget about uFiling. It isn't working.

Before anyone panics, I am not saying forget about UIF.

Your obligations as an employer have not disappeared. Your employees still need to be declared correctly. Your UIF records still need to be accurate. Outstanding declarations still need to be dealt with.

What I am saying is that employers need to stop assuming that repeatedly going back to uFiling is going to solve the problem.

Because there is a significant difference between what should be happening and what we are actually experiencing.

What the official information says

The official information still describes uFiling as a platform through which employers can manage their UIF obligations.

Employers should be able to register employees, submit declarations, update employee information and manage their UIF contributions.

At the same time, UIF is in the process of migrating services to UIF Online, with employer services forming part of this transition.

So, on paper, employers still have uFiling while UIF Online is being rolled out.

Then you actually try to do the work.

What we are experiencing

At Labour Dynamix, we work with UIF employer records every day.

We aren't testing uFiling to see whether the website opens.

We are trying to do actual UIF work on it.

And there is a difference.

We are experiencing declarations that don't behave as they should.

Information may be visible, but the functionality required to correct or process it doesn't necessarily work.

A declaration can contain an error that cannot simply be corrected by submitting it again.

Processes that should be relatively straightforward can reach a point where manual intervention becomes the only practical alternative.

That is the reality we are dealing with.

Pressing Submit again isn't a solution

One of the biggest mistakes employers can make when something goes wrong is repeatedly submitting the same declaration.

Submit.

Nothing happens.

Submit again.

Still an error.

Submit again.

It doesn't necessarily solve the problem.

In fact, it can make fault-finding more difficult because the underlying reason for the error has still not been identified.

When we assess an employer's UIF records, the question isn't:

“How do we get this declaration through?”

The better question is:

“Why is this declaration giving an error in the first place?”

That distinction matters.

The reality

Whether uFiling works today, tomorrow or next week doesn't change the underlying problem.

Employers still have UIF obligations.

If employees are missing from the employer's UIF records, they are still missing.

If terminated employees remain active, the records are still wrong.

If salary information is incorrect, it remains incorrect.

If declarations are outstanding, they remain outstanding.

If payroll records don't reconcile with UIF records, repeatedly pressing Submit will not fix the discrepancy.

So perhaps we need to stop concentrating on uFiling and start concentrating on UIF compliance.

Forget about uFiling. Don't forget about UIF.

This is the important distinction.

uFiling is a system. UIF compliance is an employer obligation.

The two are not the same thing.

And with employer services moving towards UIF Online, employers have an opportunity right now to concentrate on something far more important than fighting with a malfunctioning platform:

Get your UIF data in order.

Get ready for UIF Online

Before employer services migrate, know exactly what is sitting in your records.

Who are your current employees?

Who has left?

Are terminated employees still showing as active?

Are employees missing?

Are ID and passport details correct?

Do employment commencement dates agree with payroll?

Are termination dates and reasons correct?

Are there gaps in declaration histories?

Are salaries recorded correctly?

Does your payroll information reconcile with what has been declared to UIF?

These are the questions employers should be asking now.

A new system cannot fix bad data

This is probably the most important point.

UIF Online may be a new system. It is not a magic eraser.

If the underlying employer information is incomplete, inconsistent or incorrect, changing the platform doesn't automatically make the information correct.

Bad data remains bad data.

Missing declarations remain missing declarations.

Incorrect employment information remains incorrect employment information.

And historical discrepancies don't disappear simply because there is a new login screen.

So use this period wisely.

Reconcile.

Check your employee population.

Identify historical problems.

Establish which declaration periods are missing.

Review salary histories.

Check commencement and termination dates.

Keep payroll reports and supporting documentation.

And where the online system cannot resolve an existing problem, determine what alternative process is required to correct it.

Stop waiting for uFiling

Perhaps the question employers should stop asking is:

“When will uFiling work again?”

And start asking:

“Are we ready for UIF Online?”

Because that is something employers can actually do something about.

You cannot control whether uFiling works tomorrow.

You cannot control the migration timetable.

You cannot control what functionality will be available on a particular day.

But you can control the quality of your UIF information.

So yes:

Forget about uFiling. It isn't working.

But don't forget about UIF.

Get your records in order. Fix what needs to be fixed. Know your data. And get ready for UIF Online.