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PERSAL Number: How to Find and Check Yours [2026]
If you work for the South African government, or you used to, your PERSAL number is the reference that follows your employment record around. It appears on payslips, on leave forms and on human resources paperwork, and people are usually sent looking for it at exactly the moment they cannot find a payslip.
This guide covers the two things people actually search for: how to track down your own PERSAL number, and how to check whether your ID number is still recorded as employed in the Public Service. The second matters more than people expect, because a stale record can quietly block a grant application.
What is a PERSAL number?
PERSAL is the payroll and human resources system used across national and provincial government. The National Treasury, which runs the system, describes it as "a standardised Human Resource and Payroll system for all the Central Government Departments, Provincial Administrations, SAPS, Education and Correctional Services", and as a fully integrated system between Personnel and Salary. That is where the name comes from.
Your PERSAL number is the employee reference that system assigns to you. It is tied to your employment record rather than to your identity, so it is not the same thing as your South African ID number, and it is not something Home Affairs issues.
You will see a specific digit length quoted for PERSAL numbers on a lot of sites. Neither the DPSA nor National Treasury publishes that format on their public pages, so rather than trust a number repeated second hand, read yours off your own payslip. That is the only version that is definitely correct for your record.
How to find your PERSAL number
Look at your payslip first
The fastest route is a payslip. Your PERSAL or employee number is printed in the employee details block, usually near your name and department. Old payslips work as well as recent ones, because the number stays attached to your employment record. Employment confirmation letters sometimes carry it too.
Ask your department's HR or district office
If you have no paperwork at all, your department's human resources office can retrieve the number for you. Teachers generally go through their provincial education district office rather than the school. You will be asked for your ID number so they can locate your record, so have it ready.
There is no public self service portal that will display your PERSAL number to you on demand. Anyone promising to look it up instantly from your ID number alone is overstating what is available, so treat that kind of offer carefully.
How to check whether you are still on the public service payroll
This is the part that is genuinely self service, and it is free. The Department of Public Service and Administration runs a Public Servant Verification system that answers one question: is this person employed in the Public Service or not.
You enter a 13 digit South African ID number and click Verify. In the DPSA's own words, the tool "allows you to verify if a person is employed in the Public Service or not", and if they are, "it will provide you with the name of the department where the person is employed". Employment with the State Security Agency is excluded from the results.
Two things worth knowing before you rely on the answer. The DPSA advises contacting the relevant department directly for anything more detailed, because the nature and duration of an appointment can influence what the tool returns. And because the check is keyed on a 13 digit ID number, a single mistyped digit will simply return the wrong person or nothing at all. If you are working from a number someone read to you over the phone, run it through our free South African ID number checker first to confirm the format is valid before you draw any conclusion from a blank result.
When the system still says you work for government
A dormant employment record is the common version of this problem. You left government service, but the department never closed your record, so your ID number still returns an active employment entry.
That has consequences well outside the workplace. Means tested benefits are screened against government payroll data, and an applicant who appears to be drawing a government salary can be turned down on that basis. It is one of the reasons an SASSA identity verification check can come back with an outcome that makes no sense to the applicant.
The fix is administrative rather than technical. Run the DPSA check, note which department is named, and contact that department to have your employment record updated. The DPSA's guidance is the same: contact the relevant department to address the matter so the record is corrected on the personnel system.
Checking dismissals and resignations
The DPSA runs a second, separate register for a different question. The Central register for verification of dismissals and resignations pending disciplinary case shows whether a person was dismissed from an organ of state, or resigned while a disciplinary case was pending, and names the organ of state involved.
Its coverage is deliberately limited, and the limits matter if you are relying on a clear result. It holds information from 1 March 2018 onwards, for national and provincial departments only, excluding the Department of Defence and the State Security Agency. Public entities and local government are not yet included, though the DPSA says the register is being expanded. It is updated monthly. A clean result therefore means nothing was found within that scope, not that nothing ever happened.
If you are an employer verifying a candidate
For public service employment specifically, the DPSA tools above are the authoritative check and they cost nothing, so start there rather than paying anyone for that answer.
Where a paid check earns its place is the wider employment picture, since the DPSA register only sees government service. Our Employment History Report returns the employment records held against a South African ID number, including employers, positions, periods and income brackets where available, which covers private sector history the DPSA has no visibility of. The National Credit Act requires you to have the candidate's signed consent before that enquiry is made, and every order is compliance checked before the report is generated.
If your concern is conduct rather than employment history, that is a different check again, and our guide to checking a criminal record in South Africa and our overview of background checks in South Africa set out what is and is not available.
Frequently asked questions
Can I find my PERSAL number online?
No. There is no public portal that displays your PERSAL number to you. You can confirm online whether your ID number is recorded as employed in the Public Service using the DPSA verification tool, but the PERSAL number itself has to come from a payslip or from your department's HR office.
What does the DPSA public servant verification tool actually tell me?
It tells you whether the person attached to that 13 digit ID number is employed in the Public Service, and if so, which department employs them. It excludes the State Security Agency, and the DPSA recommends contacting the department directly for more detail.
Why does SASSA think I am a government employee?
Usually because an employment record on the government payroll system was never closed when you left. Run the DPSA verification check, see which department is named, and ask that department to update your record.
Is a PERSAL number the same as my ID number?
No. Your ID number is issued by Home Affairs and identifies you as a person. A PERSAL number is an employee reference created by the government payroll system and attached to your employment record.
Does the dismissals register cover municipalities?
Not yet. It currently covers national and provincial departments from 1 March 2018, excluding Defence and the State Security Agency. The DPSA has said it will be expanded to public entities and local government.
Before you check anything
Every check above starts with a valid 13 digit South African ID number, and a transposed digit is the most common reason a verification comes back empty. Confirm any ID number is correctly formed with our free ID number validator, or read our guide to checking an ID status online if you are chasing a Home Affairs application rather than an employment record.