I was retrenched without cause at the end of last year from my full-time corporate job and my company provided me with a U-19 form in Feb this year which I used to apply to the UIF for unemployment benefits. The UIF approved my application in June (6 months post my retrenchment date) for me to claim this benefit. Since my application to the UIF, I've started doing some part-time consulting and freelance work for smaller companies and have received some income for this work (which is really helpful, but nowhere close to what I was earning previously). I have not claimed for UIF as yet, even though I got approved. My question is the following: Will I be able to claim UIF unemployment seeing that I'm doing some consultancy projects for part of the month? I see in the continuation of payment (COP) section of the application there is a question asking if you have returned to work – What is the definition of work in this context – is it a similar full-time type of job I used to do previously or would my part-time consulting be classified as work and thus I would not be entitled to claim? Your response and guidance would be really beneficial for me to understand this better.