Looking to submit your EPF claim online? Here’s how to go about it
The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has been on an overdrive in the past few months in an attempt to become more user friendly. Among its most recent changes is that you can now submit a claim online. This process was earlier mired in paperwork and delay.
Making the claims process online is expected to reduce the time taken to process a claim. “We hope to reduce the turnaround time from 20 days to 10 days,” said VP Joy, central provident fund commissioner, EPFO. The process is now live on the EPFO website. Alook at what you need to do before submitting a claim online.
If you want to go online for your claims, you should have activated your Universal Account Number (UAN). You need to seed your Aadhaar details into the EPFO database so that electronic know-yourcustomer (e-KYC) verification can take place through a onetime password, which the Aadhaar authority will send, when you submit the claim. You can proceed only if you have registered or linked your Aadhaar.
Apart from this, you also need to input your bank account details so that once the claim is settled, the money can be transferred online.
If you have not been an EPFO member for at least five years, you also need to seed your permanent account number (PAN). The Aadhaarbased composite claim form will be used for online claim submission. There are two types of composite form: Aadhaar and non-Aadhaar.
You can submit your claim online using the Aadhaar composite claim form. The online version will be pre-filled with your basic information since you would be able to access it only after logging in to the EPF member portal. You will then have to select the type of withdrawal you wish to make.
Once you make your selection for the type of withdrawal and are eligible for a particular withdrawal based on EPFO database, you will have to authenticate your KYC through an OTP. You will receive the password on the mobile number registered for Aadhaar with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). Also remember that you can get the payment from EPFO for your claim only into the bank account registered with it and which is shown in your UAN member interface.