Can I still claim my providen… (2024)

The short answer

You won't be able to claim UIF while you are currently working.

The whole question

I am currently working in the public sector.Previously, I worked for different agencies and would leave one job and move on to the next. I never claimed my provident fund or UIFfrom those agencies, and that was 13-years-ago. Can I still claim for that money?If so, where do I go and will it not matter that I am still working, but not for a private company? I also suspect that the agencies no longer exist.

The long answer

Thank you for your email asking if you can still claim your provident fund and UIF from agencies where you used to work but that may not exist now.

You will not be able to claim UIF while you are currently working. How it works is that you have to submit a claim within six months of being retrenched or fired, or your contract ending or your employer going bankrupt.

UIF will not pay if you quit your job yourself or were suspended for fraud.

As far as your provident fund goes, what happens is that the unclaimed money is transferred to an unclaimed benefits fund, which you should still be able to access, even though some funds’ rules say that the amount must be written back after a set period.

To find out if there are any unclaimed benefits owing to you, you can access a central database on the Financial Sector Conduct Authority website at www.fsca.co.za.

Here you can input basic information such as your name, ID number, fund name, name of employer etc, so that the search engine can check for a match. If there is a match, you will be given the contact details of the fund or the administrator. From there you will have to contact the fund yourself and follow the normal claims process to prove that you have a valid claim.

You can also email the FSCA at info@fsca.co.za or phone their contact centre at 0800 20 37 22.

Labour Social Grants