Retirement fund body EPFO on Saturday rolled out two new facilities which are going to benefit over 7.6 crore members associated with EPFO. Now members can change personal details like name and date of birth online without any verification by the employer or approval by EPFO.
Besides, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) members with e-KYC EPF accounts (Aadhaar seeded) can file their EPF transfer claims online with Aadhaar OTP (one time passward) directly without any need for intervention of the employer. The two new services were introduced by Union Labour & Employment Minister Mansukh Mandaviya
Union Labour and Employment Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said, "There are more than 10 crore beneficiaries of EPFO (Employees Provident Fund Organisation) in the country. When one has to correct one's information in EPFO, many times one has to go through a long process. Now many improvements have been made in this, one of the important improvements is that now you can make the necessary changes in your information given in EPFO by going to the digital platform yourself without any intervention," while talking to mediapersons.
Mansukh Mandaviya said around 27 per cent of grievances filed by members are related to member profile/KYC issues and that would see a significant drop after the rollout of the facility. He also stated that large employers having a huge workload of such requests will also benefit. The minister stated that the EPFO has simplified the process of joint declaration on the EPFO portal by allowing employees to self-correct most common errors in personal details like name, date of birth, gender, nationality, father/ mother’s name, marital status, spouse name, date of joining and date of leaving, without any verification by employer or approval by EPFO.
How to avail the new facility?
This facility will be available for members, whose UAN (universal account number) was issued after October 1, 2017 (when Aadhaar matching was made mandatory). No supporting document is required in such cases, the minister informed. If the UAN was issued before October 1, 2017, the employer can correct details without the EPFO’s approval. The requirement of supporting documents has also been simplified for such cases.
Only where UAN is not linked with Aadhaar, any correction would have to be submitted physically to the employer and after verification forwarded to EPFO for approval, he explained. UAN registration is done by the employer for the employee at the time of joining. For many employees, mistakes were committed by employers in recording father/spouse name, marital status, nationality and service details during the registration process or later. In order to correct these errors, the employee had to make a request online with supporting documents. The request would have to be verified by the employer and then forwarded to EPFO for approval before any change could be effected. This process was called Joint Declaration.
Out of the 8 lakh requests that were forwarded to EPFO by employers in FY 24-25, it was seen that only 40 per cent were sent within 5 days, 47 per cent were sent after 10 days and the average time taken by employer was 28 days. The simplification would provide relief to employees in 45 per cent of cases through immediate correction through Aadhaar OTP verification and in the balance 50 per cent of cases through the employer itself. If any member who can self-approve has already filed his request which is pending with the employer, the member can delete the already filed request and self-approve as per simplified process. This will benefit nearly 3.9 lakh cases pending with employer as on date.
Process of claims for transfer of EPF account
About the simplification of process of claims for transfer of EPF account, EPF members with fully compliant e-KYC EPF accounts can file their Online Transfer Claims with Aadhaar OTP directly with EPFO without any need for intervention of employer. If number of claims filed (1.3 Crore) during FY 2024-25 is considered more than 94 per cent claims (1.2 crore) will instantly reach EPFO. The turnaround time of EPF transfer claim processing will be considerably reduced since it does not require approval by the employer. If any member has already filed his transfer claim which is pending with employer, the member can delete the already filed request and submit claim directly with EPFO.
The simplification will also greatly reduce the member grievances considerably (presently 17% of the total grievances pertain to transfer-related issues) along with the corresponding rejections. Large employers who have a large workload of approving such cases will have significant improvement in the ease of doing business. The internal processes of EPFO are also being simplified for transfer claim processing within this month which will further smoothen this process. At present, any online request for transfer of PF account in case of any change of job has to be verified by the employer before submitting to EPFO.
In this process on an average 12 to 13 days are taken by employers before the claim reaches EPFO for verifying transfers. During the last nine months, almost 20 lakh claims remained pending with employers for more than 15 days. The minister also said that the ministry is taking many initiatives to improve delivery of services by the EPFO and aiming the bring those at par with banking system.
*With Agency Inputs
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