Switching jobs? Know the hurdles in transferring your EPF

Meticulous record-keeping, persistence key to resolving EPF transfer grievances

For years, crores of Indian employees and their families have seen Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) as a reliable tool for ensuring their financial security during their golden years.

And EPF indeed has all the makings of a structure that can create a secure nest egg – mandatory, disciplined savings by way of monthly deduction (12 percent) from salary, high interest rate (8.25 percent for financial year 2024-25), government guarantee, tax exempt-exempt-exempt (EEE) status.

A secure, but tough-to-access nest egg?

However, on the ground, employees seeking to withdraw or transfer funds often find themselves entangled in red tape—bureaucratic hurdles, opaque processes, and poor grievance redressal routinely block hassle-free access to their own savings.

Despite Aadhaar integration and other efforts of the labour ministry and Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation’s (EPFO) to digitise the system, complaints about stalled claims keep piling up. As per EPFO’s annual report, over 25 percent of the claims, including final withdrawal, transfer and insurance, were rejected in financial year 2023-24.

Issues related to transfer of EPF was among the top three EPF-related grievances registered by the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) portal, with close to 18,000 complaints received during 2023-24.

Also read: Explained: Family pension under EPFO’s Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS)

Decoding the maze of hurdles

An average employee accepting a new job offer and switching employers, a routine activity, is simply unprepared to handle the challenges that EPF system can throw at her. Take, for instance, the case of Anvay Tripathi*, 24, a Bengaluru-based software professional. When he moved to another employer in 2023, he had absolutely no inkling of the EPF balance transfer obstacles he would have to endure. His transfer request was stalled with just a curt message: ‘pending with field office’.

“I was barred from accessing and transferring my own savings – money deducted from salary over the years, meant for retirement or emergencies in the interim,” he said.

Upon enquiries, it was revealed that the rejection was due to an error on part of his previous employer. Now, employees who join the workforce after September 2014 are not eligible for pension (under employees’ pension scheme) if their basic salary is higher than Rs 15,000. Yet, the employer had been deducting EPS contribution. “EPFO flagged the contribution as invalid since Tripathi’s joining salary exceeded Rs 15,000, making him ineligible for EPS under post-2014 rules,” explained Ketan Das, manager, operations and strategy, FinRight.in, a fintech firm that helps individuals get their provident fund and other financial grievances resolved.

Step one was to identify the EPS eligibility mismatch in the first job. “Next, we co-ordinated with the employer to issue a clarification letter confirming the mistake and then filed a detailed grievance on the EPFiGMS portal with all the supporting documents,” he added. Finally, when Tripathi reapplied for the PF transfer after the correction was processed, it was successfully approved.

“EPF transfers often get delayed due to administrative gaps and technical mismatches. One major reason is inconsistent employee data. Even a minor difference in the spelling of a name, date of birth or Aadhaar details between the old and new employer records can cause the system to reject the transfer. Another common issue is the creation of multiple UANs, as new employers sometimes generate a new UAN instead of using the existing one,” explains Rohit Jain, Managing Partner, Singhania & Co.

Additionally, procedural delays occur when the previous employer does not quickly verify exit details or approve the transfer request. “Incomplete KYC verification, pending contributions or mistakes in linking bank accounts and Aadhaar also create obstacles,” adds Jain.

Also read: How technical glitches can erase 15 years of your EPF service overnight

Formal mechanism to resolve grievances

Mumbai-based Suhasini Krishnan*, 32, faced the same challenge but the underlying cause was different. Identifying the reason was, in itself, a tedious affair as her PF transfer showed up as a ‘completed’ request in the EPFO system. “But my PF amount was never credited to my new employer’s PF account,” she said. According to Das, the receiving PF office had internally rejected the transfer, though no rejection message appeared on the portal, causing confusion.

“We had to first obtained a proof of transfer from the previous PF office. Next, we placed a request for a formal rejection letter from the current PF office, which was submitted to the previous PF office to initiate a recredit of funds,” he said. Once the funds were recredited, Krishnan sent in an offline transfer application to complete the process and restore the full-service continuity.

“At the first level, they can submit and track transfer requests through the EPFO’s Unified Member Portal. If the request faces delays, the next step is to interact with both past and current employers to ensure that approvals, KYC verifications and pending contributions are completed. If these measures do not resolve the issue, employees can escalate the matter through the EPFO’s online grievance management system,” says Jain.

What not to do while switching jobs

Now, the EPF system indeed needs a major overhaul to resolve the myriad problems that employees have to deal with merely to access their own long-term savings. However, there are certain steps that employees can take at their end to make the transfer process smoother. To start with, if you have joined the workforce post September 2014, remember that you will be eligible for EPS only if your basic salary is less than Rs 15,000.

Since employment and salary records are available on organisations’ internal payroll systems, employees can miss downloading and preserving their salary slips. However, Das recommends that you must maintain these salary slips as they are essential proofs of service and eligibility.

Do not treat EPF access as an exercise to be handled only during job transfers – it is a good practice to monitor your service history regularly on the EPFO member portal. This will help you identify missing or incorrect entries on time. “You must initiate transfers within six months of leaving a job to avoid transfer issues. Also, ensure that your Date of Exit (DOE) is marked before initiating any transfer. Before withdrawal, obtain Annexure K (issued by EPFO at the time of transfer) from your previous regional PF office and submit it to your current one to verify service continuity,” adds Das.

The labour ministry announced EPFO 3.0, introducing auto-settlement for low-value claims up to Rs 5 lakh, ATM and UPI withdrawals and OTP-based updates of basic information, among other measures. However, the complete rollout is still awaited.

This update could herald a much-needed revamp of the EPFO framework. In the meantime, EPFO must ensure existing processes run smoothly, without glitches or bureaucratic delays. Grievances should be resolved on priority, instead of being allowed to fester, causing distress to crores of employees relying on their retirement savings.

*Names have been changed to protect the identities of employees and their employers