Tag: EPF

EPF withdrawal made super easy – No Employer signature needed

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Here is a great news for all EPF account holders. EPFO has come up with new and revised forms using which EPF withdrawal process is now super easy and can happen without employer signature or any involvement. Now you can directly submit the EPF withdrawal forms and the settlement will happen directly into your bank account.

Earlier, the EPF forms were first sent to employer for their verification and signatures, which used to take a lot of time and many a times employers used to harass employees because they had the power to block the EPF withdrawal. However with these new changes, withdrawing from your EPF account is going to be very easy and fast and now it makes a lot sense, because EPF should not be linked to employer anyways. Few months back, with the concept of UAN, the EPFO had anyways delinked the EPFO from the employer to some extent, and this move looks like an extension to that.

new epf withdrawal process

New Forms – 19 UAN, l0-C UAN and 31 UAN

EPFO has issued 3 new forms which will be used for as follows

  • Form 19 UAN – You can fill this form to withdraw from your EPF at the time of retirement or leaving the job. Taking our money from the EPF is allowed only if you are unemployed for 2 months. So in case you just change a job and join a new company within 60 days, you can not offically withdraw from EPF, You need to apply for EPF transfer in that case
  • Form 10-C UAN – You can fill up this form in order to withdraw from your EPS amount. EPS account is a seperate account linked to your EPF which is for the purpose of pension. Note that one is allowed to withdraw from EPS only if your EPF is not more than 10 yrs old.Check more details on this here.
  • Form 31 – UAN – This form can be submitted if you want to partially withdraw from Employee providend fund (EPF) account for the purpose like marriage, house buying or medical emergency. There are different rules for different situations. You can check more details on this in this article

Note that there exist forms 19, 10C and 31 already (without the word UAN), but now the new forms end with the word “UAN” to differentiate between old and new forms.

Who can fill up & use these new EPF forms?

Here is the catch!. The new EPF forms can be used by only those employees who fulfil following two conditions

  • UAN must be active and should be linked with aadhaar number
  • Your KYC details (especially bank account number) must be verified by employer using digital signature

If the above two points are true for you, only then you can use these new EPF withdrawal forms

new epf withdrawal forms

Step by Step process of withdrawing money from EPF account

Let me help you with the steps of EPF withdrawal now. For the sake of explanation, we will consider the case of Form 19 UAN, which is used to withdraw the EPF money once you leave the job or are retired. The same process is used for the other forms as well.

Step 1 – Make sure your UAN is active and KYC details are verified

These new forms can be used only by those whose UAN is active and all the KYC details are verified by employee as explained above.
Hence, the first step is to verify your eligibility. For that, you can go to http://uanmembers.epfoservices.in/ and login with your login and password and then go to Profile->Update KYC Information, where you can either update the details or check them. It looks something like the below example (thanks to my close friend who has passed his details to me for creating this snapshot)

check uan status

In case, you have more than two UAN allotted to you, then you should discard one of them and should be using the latest one provided to you by the current employer.

Step 2 – Fill up the EPF Withdrawal form and send along with cancelled cheque

Once you have verified that all the details are fine. You can then fill up the form. Below you can see form 19 UAN as an example. One has to provide the Mobile number, UAN number, date of leaving, the reason for leaving the service (make sure you choose it properly, because TDS will be applied depending on that reason),PAN & full postal address.

Note that apart from this form, you also have to attach the cancelled cheque of the bank account which is mentioned in the UAN KYC details.

EPF Form 19 UAN for withdrawal
Step 3 – Send the form to the EPF jurisdiction office

Finally, the last step is to submit this form, along with the cancelled cheque to the EPF office which comes under your jurisdiction. The simple way to find the exact address of the regional EPF Office is to go to http://search.epfoservices.org:81/locate_office/office_location.php and enter your state and district of the office where you work/worked. You will get the full address. You can then courier the documents to that address.

epf jurisdiction

The above 3 steps will help you to withdraw from EPF money easily. If you want to withdraw your complete EPF amount, then you need to fill up form 19 UAN and form 10-C and send both of them.

BONUS – Fill up form 31 UAN to withdraw from EPF for purpose of buying house

Let me also share one very important thing related to buying house or repayment of house loan through EPF amount. Form 31 UAN can be filled for partial withdrawal for the purpose like buying house, repaying home loan or things like medical emergency or marriage at home. For more on this, please look at this article.

You can see the snapshot of form 31 UAN below. If you look at 4th and 5th point, you can clearly see that you can take the money directly in the name of the “agency”, which can be the builder or the company which is helping in construction of house. The cheque can be taken for that.
form 31 UAN

EPF Withdrawal process to be online very soon

I hope you are now clear about these EPF withdrawal forms and how to fill them up. Note that very soon these facilities will become online, it’s just a matter of time. Once that happens, the process will be much smoother and fast, because things will become online.

Let me know if you have any doubts or any questions on this topic. Do you think these forms will help in EPF withdrawal a bit faster?

UAN – All you wanted to know about the new EPF system

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

EPFO has brought some major changes in the way it works and a new system called UAN (Unique Account Number) is in place now. This UAN is a way to simplifying the process of collecting and managing the provident fund money for employees.

Transfer EPF account online

Background – The pain of the old EPF system

Before I start explaining, Let me go back a bit to help you understand a bit of background. Earlier when a person joined a new job for the first time, he got an EPF account opened by the employer where his provident fund money was deposited. For years, this money got accumulated in that EPF account.

Now when this person left his job and joined some other organization, the new employer again assigned him a new EPF account and started depositing his provident fund money in that account.

This way, if a person changed his job 5 times, he had 5 different EPF account numbers and in case he wanted to withdraw his EPF money, he had to apply at 5 different employers or transfer then one by one to his latest EPF account and this called for a big headache

This way, if a person changed his job at 5 different places, he had 5 EPF accounts and now he had to either withdraw money from his EPF accounts one by one, or they have to transfer the old EPF money to new EPF account.

But that was a big pain!.

Transferring your old EPF money to new EPF meant filling up the forms, then EPFO department sent to your old employer to get their signatures and if they denied or didn’t exist at all (if they closed down), then things would fall apart and now you were stuck with no information, no proper status and no idea what you need to do.

Calling EPFO department or emailing them didn’t work most of the times, and a lot of people just let their old EPF account exist and didn’t do anything, because of the sheer amount of uncertainty and ambiguity. This whole system was raw, old and not friendly for the employees at all.

Things have changed now quite a bit after UAN has been introduced and most of the pain points have been addressed. Let me now share some critical points about UAN or Universal Account Number as it’s called.

What is UAN?

In simple words, UAN is a 12 digit single account number which will be linked to your provided fund money. Now you don’t need to worry about different EPF accounts and then transfer them when you join a new job. Now

each employer will just give you a member id, and all those member ids will be linked with the same UAN. Even the employee’s having EPF under private trusts will be assigned the UAN.

This is the new system and will be applicable now for your current and future employment. Any EPF account you had before this, sadly will not be handled in this system. You will have to manually deal with old EPF accounts, for anything new will now be under UAN. The image below clearly shows the situation now and then.

UAN-vs-EPF

3 Steps of obtaining and activating your UAN?

Below there are steps to be followed if you want to get your UAN and activate it.

Step 1 – Get the UAN from your Employer

The first step is to ask your employer for your UAN. EPFO department has already allotted most of the UAN (4.2 crores as the last count) and communicated it with employers. So most probably your employer must have shared your UAN number to you.

If your employer has not yet shared it with you. You can still validate if your UAN has been issued or not. For that, you need to follow the steps below

Then click on the “Check Status” button and it will show a message saying “UAN is activated” in case it’s already activated by EPFO department. Once you see that message, then check it with your employer. Below screenshot gives you an idea about how to do it.

check UAN allotment status

So like this, you can first verify if your UAN is allocated or not against your EPF. Also, note that UAN is to be allotted to only contributing members whose accounts are active. All the dormant/inactive account is going to get closed.

So if you have 3 EPF account, out of which 2 are old and dormant, please check the status using your current EPF account number which is active.

Step 2 – Activate the UAN

The next step is to activate your UAN. For that, you need to follow the steps below

  • https://uanmembers.epfoservices.in/uan_reg_form.php
  • Enter your UAN, mobile number and EPF account details
  • Get authorization PIN on your mobile
  • Submit PIN and activate your UAN
  • Then generate your login/password and registration is complete.

Activate UAN and Authorization PIN

Step 3 – Update your KYC details

After that, you should log in to UAN portal with your username and password and once you enter the portal, you will see many options like for downloading passbook, downloading UAN card, and editing your details. Apart from that, you will see an option to Edit your KYC Details.

UAN KYC update

Following are the documents which can be used for KYC. You need to upload a scanned copy of any one document

  • National Population Register
  • AADHAR Card
  • Permanent Account Number
  • Bank Account Number
  • Passport
  • Driving License
  • Election Card
  • Ration Card

Below you can see an example of how it looks when you choose PAN as an option.

KYC update UAN

Special Benefits of UAN

Let us now see some of the benefits of UAN compared to the old EPF system. Some changes in UAN were really required from last many years (even decades). Let’s see them one by one.

Benefit #1- Communication directly between employee and EPFO

The best thing about UAN is that now the communication can happen directly with EPFO and Employee. Earlier the employer was in between employee and EPFO for most of the things, especially for withdrawals and transfer of EPF.

Your employer had to sign the documents from their side, now this will not happen. The employer will now act like a depositor in your account and nothing else.

Benefit #2- UAN will remain same throughout the career

The best part is that Universal account number is going to be same throughout your whole career. Each time you change your job, all you need to do is provide your UAN to your new employer and he will tag the member id they create for you to that same UAN.

Note that your overall career moves will be recorded at one place because your UAN is nothing but a central database of all your employers and your past employment, but this will only be visible to the employee and no one else.

Benefit #3- Sms notifications when your Provident Fund is deposited

Now each month, when your employer deposits your provident fund money, you will directly get an SMS notification informing you about it. This is really great because now you know if your employer is actually depositing the money with EPFO or not.

This will be exactly like you get notifications from your bank when your account is credited with salary. This is especially nice because in past there have been cases where the employer didn’t deposit the EPF money for years and months and employee came to know about it much later and then they had to lose their hard earned money

Benefit #4- Update your KYC at one place

Now you just have one single window where you can update your address, mobile, email and other KYC details in case they change in future. A lot of issues happened in the earlier model where the same person had a different address and contact details with different employers and that created issues while withdrawal and transfers.

Benefit #5- Transfer of your Provident fund money automatically

Now the transfer of EPF is very simple. When you join a new job, you just need to furnish your UAN number to your employer and automatically within 1-2 months, your provident fund money will be transferred. In a way, it just has to get linked to your UAN

Benefit #6- Extremely friendly process for EPF withdrawal or Applying for Loan

This is still in process and can take up more than 6 months to a year, but once it’s complete, then the process for withdrawal and loan will be super fast and simple. You might not be aware that you can withdraw from your EPF for important events in life like marriage, buying a house, or medical emergency subject to some rules and restrictions.

Once UAN system is fully functional, you then just need to fill up a form and provide your fingerprint to a biometric reader and once things are matched, the amount will be transferred to your registered bank account within an hour.

This used to take months and years earlier. I am not sure if in reality, it would be as simple and fast, as they claim – but still, things are bound to get simple and fast.

Conclusion

Make sure your UAN is activated and you have uploaded the KYC document. If you have any other queries regarding UAN, please share it with us and we will try to find out the answer.

6 reasons for which you can withdraw from your EPF – like Buying House, Medical treatment, Marriage etc !

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Yes, you read it right ! . Most of the people do not know that they can withdrawal partially from their EPF account even when they are in the job for some specific and important reasons in life like buying house, marriage and paying for education fees.

Today I am going to share with you this very hidden and not so known information about EPF partial withdrawal. EPF is an important part of most of the salaried individuals, but there is lack of awareness of how it can help you at times when you are pressed for money in life.

If you have worked for several years like 5-20 yrs already, you have accumulated a good amount in your EPF (Employee Provident Fund), but most of the people feel that its locked in and they will only be able to get it only at the time of retirement or will be able to withdraw/transfer it when they leave their job.

EPF withdrawal for house purchase, marriage or medical emergencies

6 situations when you can withdraw money from EPF account while you are working

Here are those 6 major milestones in life or reasons for which you can take out the money from EPF account

  • For Marriage Purpose of Self, Sibling and Children
  • For Education of Self + Children
  • Purchase/Construction of House or Flat
  • Repayment of Existing Home Loan
  • Repairs/Alteration of Existing House
  • For Medical Treatment

Different rules for different situations

Para 68 of Employee Provident Fund Act 1952, defines how much you can withdraw, under which condition, after how many years of service and finally how many number of times. But before you move forward, its important to understand two important terms – which are “wages” and “years in service”.

You should know these two terms because how much you can withdraw for some reason has some restrictions and defined like this  – “You can withdraw maximum 36 times your monthly wages, only after 5 yrs of service”. So you will get confused on the terms like wages and years of service .

Most of the people confuse “wages” with the monthly take home salary or gross salary and do not understand how to calculate “yrs of service” because they have changed their jobs and keep moving from one company to another and have not transferred their old EPF account to new one.

So lets understand these two critical points

What is the meaning of “Wages” ?

Wages means Basic Salary + DA (if any) . So if you are earning Rs 80,000 per month take home,. but your Basic Salary + DA is only Rs.25,000 per month and rest 55,000 is other components, then for calculation purpose – “wages” will be Rs.25,000 only and not Rs.80,000 which is generally confused with.

What is the meaning of “X yrs of Completed Service” ?

How old is EPF account is the sum total of how many years you have worked. Do not confuse it with how long are you are employed in current job.

Because Employee Provident Fund (EPF) is a centralized pension system, if you ave worked for 3 yrs , 4 yrs and 2 yrs in 3 different companies, then your EPF account would be considered as 9 yrs old, provided you have transferred your old EPF accounts to the current one.

So in this example which I just gave, even if your current job is 2 yrs old, if you have transferred your old EPF to your current one, your “yrs of service” will be 9 yrs, and then you will be eligible for many benefits which we are going to talk in this article.

Incase you have not transferred your old EPF account to current EPF account, then in that case you will be at loss, because there is no data of your past employment in the current EPF account and you suddenly might not be eligible for various withdrawal benefits, because many of them require atleast 5 or 7 yrs of service.

So the first step you should do is transfer your old EPF to your new EPF account. Incase you have been facing issues while transferring your EPF account, file a RTI now and get it done !

What is Form 31 ?

Form 31 is the main form which one has to fill and submit to employer inorder to withdraw money for various important situations mentioned above. Along with form 31, you also need to provide specific documents depending on the case. You can either ask for Form 31 from your employer or download Form 31 from EPF website.

Fill this form and submit it to your employer who will then verify it and process it. Note that you should not send it directly to EPFO office, because it has to go through your employer only. Below is the form 31 attached if you want to have a look at it.

How will you receive the money from EPFO ?

When you fill up the form 31, you need to you need to fill up your bank details and also give a cancelled cheque and once your employer and EPFO verifies it and process it, you get the money through NEFT or RTGS in your bank account.

Incase the amount is less then Rs 2,000, you also have option to get it via money order.

6 situations when you can withdraw from your EPF

Below are those 6 important reasons for which you can withdraw from your EPF , now I am going to explain each of them in detail. Here they are –

Reason #1 – Marriage for self, children and siblings

You can withdraw from your EPF account for the occasion of marriage if you have completed 7 yrs of service. The interesting part is, you can avail this facility 3 times in life (during your service) and the maximum amount you can withdraw can not be more than 50% of the “Employee share” in EPF account.

You should be clear that even Employer contributes to your EPF account and that is not considered for this withdrawal. So even if your EPF account total balance is Rs 10 lacs, that whole amount is not considered for calculation purpose, only your own contribution and interest on that amount is used for calculation purpose.

This is applicable for the marriage of

  • Self
  • Son or Daughter
  • Brother or Sister

So for an example, lets say you have been working for 10 yrs and your sister’s marriage is coming up, you can withdraw money from your EPF account for this purpose.

You will need to provide the full address of venue, marriage date in form 31, and also attach some proof of wedding like Marriage invitation or the bonafide certificate of the fees payable and give it to your employer for verification and processing.

Reason #2 – For Education of Self + Children

You can also withdraw for education expenses for self and children. This is valid only for post matriculation educational expenses. By post-matriculation, it means after 10th standard .

So if you are admitting your child to any college or university for graduation or post graduation or any other professional course, you can withdraw from your EPF account. But this can be availed only after 7 yrs of service and the maximum amount you can withdraw is 50% of your own contribution.

This can be used for maximum 3 times in your lifetime, but this 3 times also includes the “marriage” as the reason. So the point is , for Marriage or Education purpose, you can withdraw for maximum 3 times in total.

Reason #3 – Purchase/Construction of House/Land

If you are planning to buy or construct a house OR purchase a land, you are eligible to withdraw some limited money from your EPF account once in lifetime. Here are some of the rules which you need to satisfy

  • The house/land should be on your name or your spouse name or jointly in the name of you and your spouse (no other combination is allowed)
  • You should have completed 5 yrs of service.
  • If you are purchasing land, the maximum permissible amount is 24 times monthly wages.
  • If you are purchasing or constructing a house/flat , then the permissible limit is 36 times monthly wages (including the acquisition of land also)

So for example –

If you are buying a flat and your salary per month is Rs.80,000 , but your basic salary + DA (wages) is only Rs.25,000 per month, then for calculation sake, your wages is Rs 25,000. So as per rule, you can withdraw upto 36 times your monthly wage, which is 36 x Rs.25,000 = Rs.9 lacs from your EPF account.

If you do not have that much money, then you will get less than 9 lacs. This is not a small amount if you think about it. When you take the home, there are so many costs involved and one is so hard pressed for money that time, Even few lacs is a big enough help.

The property in question should be free from any dispute or emcumbrances to avail this facility (here are 20+ terms you should know about real estate). Also the property should be registered and a proof of registration must be given to get this facility.

Reason #4 – Repayment of Existing Home Loan

This one is surely going to move a lot of you readers I know :). If you have a home loan, you can even withdraw some part of your EPF money to prepay your current home loan, but for that you need to have 10 yrs of service. However you can avail this only once in your lifetime, and this one time limit is clubbed with the last reason (3rd) above.

So one can either withdraw money from EPF account for purchase/construction of house or repayment of house loan, not both !

The property must be in the name of self, spouse or jointly registered with spouse.

A lot of people have a joint home loan with father, mother, siblings – but in those cases, you wont get this benefit. The amount you can withdraw will be 36 times of your monthly wages.

The money you will get under this clause, can be taken from self contribution and employer contribution in EPF. You will need to provide the proof for house agreement, sanction of house loan and some other documents as asked by the EPFO office.

Also the money will be issued directly to the lender bank, not to you (incase you thought you can trick the EPFO and enjoy the money for some other purpose). Next, you can use the money from your self + employer contribution.

Reason #5 – Repairs/Alteration of Existing House

At times, when your house is little old (after many years), there comes a time when you want to make some alterations and changes in current house and it burns your pocket. You might want to do some construction work, or lets say change your home tiles, or add a new room in existing house.

In all these cases, you can use EPF money for this purpose. However there are few rules

  • The maximum money you can take is 12 times your monthly wages
  • The house should be more than 5 yrs old after construction completion date.
  • You should have completed 10 yrs of service
  • You can avail this facility only once
  • The house should be in the name of self, spouse or jointly with spouse

Note that this money can only come out of your own contribution, not employer’s contribution

Reason #6 – For Medical Treatments

If you have health insurance, then well and good, but if you don’t have it and if you are hospitalized or have to undergo some major surgery, you might have to shell out a lot of money, but your EPF account can be of some help to you partially.

You can withdraw money from your EPF (Provident Fund) for a medical treatment for self or anyone is family in following 3 situations (any one, not all)

(a) The hospitalization is for more than 1 month (for any reason), or
(b) major surgical operation in a hospital, or
(c) if one is suffering from T.B., leprosy, paralysis, cancer, mental derangement or heart ailment and having been granted leave by his employer for treatment of the said illness.

The best part is that you can withdraw the money anytime in your service.

There is no requirement that, you must have completed X number of years in service. Even if you have been in service for just 1 yr or 2 yrs, you can still withdraw money for medical treatment – But at the same time, the maximum money you can take is limited to 6 months wages, which is not a very big amount, but still atleast you get some help and this option is there.

This benefit can be taken anytime you want and for any number of times during your life time. So in a way, your EPF will come to your rescue in times of need, at least partially if not fully!.

But, there are few documents you will have to produce and give along with Form 31 and those are

  • A certificate from your employer which states that the Employees’ State Insurance Scheme facility and benefits thereunder are not actually available to the member or the member produces a certificate from the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation to the effect that he has ceased to be eligible for cash benefits under the Employees’ State Insurance Scheme
  • A certificate from eligible doctor stating the fact that hospitalization of one month is required or there is a requirement of a major surgical operation or certifying that one is suffering from the mentioned illness – i.e T.B, leprosy, paralysis, cancer, mental derangement or heart ailment.

All the rules mentioned in a single chart

So that was all the rules I wanted to tell you, I also want to give you a single chart which has all the above points at one place.

epf withdrawal chart for house purchase, marriage or education expenses

An example of someone with 10+ yrs of experience

To give you a more clear picture, here is a simple example which will help you understand how much a person is eligible to withdraw in money terms. I have assumed that a person has completed 10 yrs of service and his wages per month is Rs 20,000 and his current EPF balance is Rs.10 lacs.

epf withdrawal example house purchase

Conclusion

Your EPF account is primarily for your long term wealth creation, Do not use it only because the money is available through that because its a place where your money gets accumulated each month without your intervention.

However in case of crisis situations and when you are not able to arrange for money from anywhere, its a good place to chip in and withdraw the money.

Let me know if you want to share any new information or have any doubts. I would be happy to answer them incase I know more

How EPF Fraud of 100 crore was done from Inactive accounts?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

In the last few days, there is news that some EPFO employees have done fraud and siphoned off Rs 21 crores from some EPF account.

How was this EPF fraud done?

So the fraud was done on those EPF accounts which belonged to small companies which are inactive from 2006 and there were some checks and balances which were not done for those old accounts. Another thing they did is that they only withdraw 2-3 lacs because it does not for any kind of audit (it happens above 5 lacs withdrawal).

This was done by few employees of the Mumbai office and one of the clerks was the mastermind for this. Around  8 people have been suspended already and it points out that a bigger fraud may be in place. More investigations are going on right now!

Apart from the above recent incident, I also want to share with you some more incidents which have happened in past.

I am going to share some startling facts today about EPF Frauds that have recently come to light and have been written about and highlighted in the press. And it is highly likely that some of you who are reading this article might be victims of this fraud – just that you are unaware of the fact at the moment.

Fraud Withdrawal’s from EPF accounts

Sanjay Kumar is the Chief Vigilance Officer at EPFO and on 7th Oct 2013, a circular was issued to all the EPFO establishments of all regions in the country with the subject- “Fraudulent withdrawal from the account of EPFO by furnished forged statutory returns”.

The letter talked about scammers making fraudulent withdrawals from various EPF accounts by submitting forged bank accounts and KYC details/documents. It also mentioned that EPF officials had colluded with these scammers and helped them withdraw money from Provident Fund accounts – especially ones that were inoperative (no activity on those accounts) and/or where the employer no longer existed (closed or shutdown).

I have paraphrased below important excerpts from the circular

Point 2. The investigation has revealed that the fraud was committed mainly in respect of those establishments where remittances had not been received for many years, records not updated and the establishment had not submitted statutory returns. Further no pre-coverage or post-coverage inspections were carried out of the firms and no claims were received or settled since long,” it said.

Point 3. The investigation has revealed that the fraudsters had submitted forged/fabricated returns viz . Form 3A/6A, 9(R), Specimen Signature Cards and therefore, Submitted fictitious claims in the name of original members of non-members. The claims were settled by putting pressure on dealing hands/office by all possible means.

You might be aware of multiple cases where investors face a slew of obstacles while withdrawing their Employee Provident Fund money. At times, it takes years before they get any status of their EPF money and even when a payout is made, cheques go missing or are sent to the wrong address. So, it doesn’t require much imagination to see how in the wrong hands the cheques can be cashed simply by opening a fake bank account.

Here is an incident where an EPF investor faced the issue

Preliminary investigations revealed that there had been huge withdrawals and transfers of money from the individual fund accounts of a number of school employees without their consent and knowledge,” they added. “An FIR was registered and investigations were initiated by a special investigation team. During the investigation, it came to light that funds were withdrawn by the treasurer of the school by forging signatures of the principal and staff members,” police said.  (Source)

Some Numbers

To put things in context, we are not talking about a few isolated fraud cases or few crore rupees here. The actual scale of the fraud is mind-boggling and will cause you sleepless nights.

Consider this – as on April 2011, there were close to 8.15 crore EPF accounts, out of which 3.14 crores EPF accounts were dormant with a balance of close to 16,000 crore rupees. Of these 3.14 crore dormant accounts, 2.5 crore accounts had a negative balance, which meant that they did not have any money in them (money had been totally withdrawn!).

EPF withdrawal fraud on fake names

How does EPF Fraud work?

Let’s talk about the modus operandi of the fraudsters in detail, so that you can understand the loopholes in the EPFO system. Note that this whole fraud is highlighted mainly for dormant accounts, especially those where the employer does not exist now. However, it would not surprise me if frauds started to happen even on active accounts anytime soon.

So here are the steps that are taken by fraudsters

Step 1 – Identify a dormant EPF account

The first step is to find out all the details of the dormant EPF account. If you have some money to spend on bribes or lots of time and patience to search the Internet, you can get all the information you want. The Internet abounds with people who have given their EPF numbers, names and addresses without realizing the risk they are exposing themselves to.

Also if you have the money, you can quite easily bribe officials and get information. A dormant EPF account is one that does not get any fresh contributions for 36 months. At times the employer depositing the money in the EPF account closes operations and now the EPF account is totally orphaned and the money is sitting idle.

The EPF holder is either in another job waiting for that perfect moment when he will start the withdrawal or transfer process or he is working outside India and has totally forgotten to take action on his EPF account. It may also be that the money in the EPF account is such a trivial amount that he/she does not bother to do much about it.

Step 2 – Open a bank account with Forged details

The fraudster’s next step is to open a bank account with forged details and prepare a PAN card, address proof etc. In an environment, where obtaining fake passports or completely forged educational degrees is child’s play, it’s no stretch to assume that it would be easy to get fake KYC documents made.

Step 3 – Apply for Withdrawal of Claims with forged identity

After all the documents and identity are set, one just has to fill up a withdrawal claim while posing as the target of the intended fraud. If the company depositing the money in the EPF account is now non-existent, then EPFO relies on the bank branch to confirm the authenticity of the bank account (as per the Livemint article)

In any event, the structure of EPFO is not centralized i.e. each state has its own EPFO department and things are controlled locally. Therefore there are different EPF account numbers for the same person and different EPF accounts opened at different intervals. Even the process followed at each step is not extraordinary but rather the same old rotten way of doing things.

If there are issues at some stage, it has been found that insiders have been influenced and helped to pass the claims (as per the EPFO circular itself). There is no wonder that bribes are given and taken and things are bent. Here is proof below

The RTI reply also revealed that at least 1,350 EPFO employees have had corruption charges against them in the past five years. Of this, 450 are from the officer grade. Most of these officers have been accused of misusing power and colluding with companies to turn a blind eye to their wrongdoings. And every year, more and more such officers are coming under the scanner.

Confirming the trend, DL Sachdeva, a member of the EPFO board, said it would be next to impossible for any company to siphon off money without the help of EPFO officials. (Source)

EPF fraud modus operandi

What you should do now?

If you have an old EPF account that needs attention, you should ensure you withdraw the money or transfer it to your current EPF account. Make certain that you only have one single active EPF account running.

Do not leave it unattended for extended periods or else be ready to face unpleasant surprises in the future. If you need any information or need to move things forward, use the RTI application to the EPFO department and things will move quickly. Also, make sure you take general precautions like not revealing your EPF number and other details in public without a strong reason.

Please share your views on this topic and EPFO in general in the comments section below?

Is your Company Depositing your EPF money ? Are you Sure?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

I don’t want to shock you, but there are tons of cases where employer happily deducts your EPF amount from your salary, but they do not deposit it with EPFO. This goes on for years and one day you come to know that you are stuck ! , because there is no EPF money for you. Your employer has severe cash crunch or is about to shut down and now you have to run pillar to post to claim your money. The whole situation gets ugly and you feel cheated, because your company never deposited the Employee Provident Fund amount. Now you go to Police and file a case against employer. But this all can be avoided if you are careful a bit, from starting itself.

Employer not depositing EPF money

How about making sure your employer is depositing your provided fund  money into your EPF account ? Before I tell you, how you can do that, let me first share with you some REAL LIFE cases where employer failed to deposit EPF money and employees are suffering ! . These are some of the examples shared by readers of this same blog over comments section in various of EPF related articles.

Case 1 – How Abha’s company didnt deposit EPF money for 2 yrs

Dear Manish,

Thanks for such an informative post. At last i do see some hope. Here is my situation:

Worked for this company A for almost 4 years and left them in Nov 2011 as they were downsizing…yes it’s been more than a year and half of torture they have given me thus far. Company is kind of closed now as I don’t get any proper response from them, CEO is just not bothered. Company first asked us to wait for 2 months to file the claim as it is a rule, did that patiently. Later came the story of change of PF office from one (under which it was originally registered) to another and that went on for several months

They kept saying PF offices are not coordinating among themselves, the real reason was even shocking and more disappointing, PF guys were not updating because this company didn’t not deposit our PF amount for long time (2 yrs appx), they however kept deducting the same from our salaries (was surprised how come there was no annual audit by PF office and how this company could continue doing so for this long), anyways they cleared things in January this year and said we have applied again. When filed a grievance online, PF person says we haven’t received any claim whereas this X employer says they have already applied. Don’t know what the real truth is but on the basis on experiences I have… most certainly it is the X employer at fault.

Another strange thing is, when I checked by balance online in January this year it looked fine (updated up to 2012… I do have SMS proof) but from last 2 times it saying updated up to 2010, I am worried if this employer has dome some mischief here too, is it possible for a company to take back money from an employee’s PF account or it is the issue with PF website?

I don’t want to apply for my claim via options you suggested above unless I see the balance updated. Thank you so much for reading thru my query/concern. Appreciate your feedback.

Regards,
Abha

(Direct Link)

Case 2 – Balaji Company asked him to Wait till they deposit the Employee Provident Fund money

Hi Manish,

I switched jobs in August this year. Before I quit the job, I had submitted form with my previous employer for withdrawing the amount in my PF account. I had not received the amount due till December. When I called my previous employer, they told that they have not yet deposited the money and I will have to wait till March 2013.

My question is, is what my employer did legal? How frequently should the employer deposit the PF money with the EPFO? I have been working with the organisation for little more than a year now.

Thanks for clarifying.

(Direct Link)

Case 3 – Sarabjeet Kaur company not replying her because they did not deposit EPF amount

I worked in an organisation for 2 years. They have not deposited the PF amount which they used to deduct it from our account. Its been 1 year I am asking them to refund the PF. They have stopped replying to the emails and have stopped answering everybody’s call. Is there any ways I can withdraw the amount? The firm is based out in Mumbai and I used to work in Delhi Branch.

(Direct Link)

Employer can be Jailed if they do not deposit EPF money

An employer has no right to deduct the employee share from salary and not deposit it with EPF. There can be any excuse or justification for this, because its employee hard earned money. Once the employer deducts the Employee Provident Fund money from the employee salary, its their duty to deposit it with EPFO , and if they fail to do so for any reason, its a crime.

Whatever is the case, you can always complain about it with the EPFO department and the concerned officer has all the rights to proceed the legal complaint against the Employer and in the worst case, employer can also go to jail, because what they did is a criminal offence under section 405/406 of IPC .

Here is a real life case Shrikant Bangur And Ors. vs Shree Synthetics Shramik Union – where employer did not deposit the EPF money and there was legal battle going on . Here are the 3 things which you can do against your employer.

1. Complain to CVO officer – You can also email your situation and case to the CVO (chief vigilence officer) at EPFO, who is appointed by Ministry of labour for EPFO to look after these kind of irregularities. You can email them at [email protected] . More at this link

2. File a Police Complaint – You can also file a criminal case, against the employer in police station which comes under the jurisdiction of your working office (not the registered one) . All you need to show them is the salary slip, which shows the EPF deducted, note that its always better to mail CVO about it anyways, so that the chances of local authorities influencing the matter will reduce.

3. Complain to  Regional Provident Fund Commissioner (RPFC) – You should also complain about the matter to the RPFC officer if under the EPFO office, which will be investigated by him/her.

How Employers Deposit your EPF contribution to EPF account ?

How exactly your EPF money gets deposited in your EPF account ? Here is what I found on this website

Employees’ PF a/cs are maintained under these two different methods are –

1) All accounts are with O/o the RPFC

Every registered employer remits the Employee Provident Fund contribution by challans to the RPFC’s Bank a/cs. which in turn gets accounted in the respective A/c No.of every such employee. And the employer submits monthly returns to the RPFC showing the details, employee wise of contribution thus remitted.

Every such money is maintained by the RPFC who in turn disburses, thro’ the employer towards refundable loans, F & F settlements together with accrued interest to the respective employees. Once in a year a ledger sheet showing the transactions of any employee for one full year is issued to the concerned. Similarly from the PF contribution pension contribution is divided and remitted to the Pension a/c. of the employees thro’ a separate A/c. code. This method is the largest.

2) The other method is called “Exempted Establishments (PF Trust)”

An employer/company who employs more 100 employees on roll is eligible to apply to the RPFC for “exemption” from maintaining the EPF under the above said (1) method. RPFC grants the “exemption orders” under certain conditions after examining various aspects. After which the Employer sets up a EPF Trust to be run by Employer (employer’s nominees & Employees’ representative (Union nominees) which manages all the contributions of employees & employer (excepting Pension Fund which is never maintained by the Trust). A set of Bye laws, in the lines of EPF Act & Rules is prepared & duly approved by the RPFC for running the Trust.

This PF Trust money is invested in the Govt.approved securities for earning the assured interest from which accrued interest to the employees’ PF a/cs is credited. The Trust once in a year prints the Employees’ PF ledger a/cs and distribute to the concerned. The Trust accounts are audited by the CA and submitted to the RPFC. RPFC also periodically inspects the Trust a/cs and oversee. Monthly, annual returns in the Forms have to be submitted. The convenience under the Trust is quick disbursement of loans, withdrawals and F & F settlements to the employees. Surplus, if any never distributed but any shortfall is made good by the employer.

(Source)

How to find out if your employer is depositing your EPF contribution or not ?

Let me share with you some steps you should follow, to find out if your company is depositing your EPF contribution properly or not.

1. First thing is the do not rely on hearsay’s here and there. It might happen that you come to know from some one that your company is not depositing your EPF money, but it might not always be true . Delays happens at times .

2. Every month on 25th , your employer is suppose to send few documents to EPFO department to intimate them on

  • Form – 2 (for new member during the month)
  • Form – 5 (detail of new joinees during the month)
  • Form – 10 (detail of left employees during the month)
  • Form – 12 – (Details of money deducted from employees salary)

3. The best thing is to first contact your employer and ask them for a copy of these forms for last 2-3 months, do double check if they deposited the money or not.

4. As per my opinion, the best way for a common man and most convenient option is to file a RTI against EPFO and ask them all these questions . Mention your EPF account number, your employer Code and simply ask if your employer has been depositing your contribution or not.

Conclusion

Mostly the big size employers might be depositing the Employee Provident Fund money properly on time, but some of the companies which are small sized or whose owners and management teams are unethical might be into these illegal activities of not depositing employees hard earned money. Its always a good idea to spend some time to be assured, in-case you feel your company is one of those who are not depositing EPF amount with EPFO 🙂

Do you know of any case like this ? Also Please share this article with more and more people

Online EPF Transfer and Withdrawal from July 1, 2013 – Great News !

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Starting July 1, 2013 , EPF account holders will be able to withdraw or transfer their EPF accounts from one employer to another employer online. EPFO has said that they are working on setting up a central clearance house which will be operational from July 1, 2013 . One of the major problems faced by employees is to transfer their EPF accounts from one company to another when they change their jobs or to withdraw their EPF accounts after leaving their job, which takes years and months, without them having any transparency in the system and process. They are frustrated, lost and have no idea where to ask for their EPF status and to whom . Because of this delay, a lot of people just let things go and the matter drags for years and years

epf (employee providend fund) transfer or withdrawal online

You can also Track the Status Online

The best part is that you will be able to track your request online and will be able to see which stage your EPF withdrawal or transfer is ! .

Permanent EPF account number for each person

EPFO has earlier said that they are working on the permanent EPF account number where a employee once allotted a EPF account number will be able to use the same Employee provident fund number when he/she moves to another employer. The new employer will deposit the provident fund money in the same permanent account number. This will solve a lot of issues, but this would be possible only after 1-2 yrs , the first focus is on introducing a online withdrawal or transfer service.

Verification of Details after the request is put ?

Once you apply for withdrawal or transfer, the verification of all the details from employer will be done by EPFO . All you would have to do is just initiate the transfer or withdrawal request online (Its not clear how it will happen or what you need to exactly do). After that EPFO department will take charge and do their part of work by contacting the employer. Here is how the transfer would work

The member makes his transfer application at his new or old office or directly to the EPFO through an online application. The process is then taken over by the EPFO, which gets data verification from both offices and gets the transfer done immediately. Now, EPFO would do the work of getting details from both old and new offices where transfer is involved, says EPFO Commissioner Anil Swarup. – SOURCE

This will help 50 million Employee provident fund account holders , lot of paper work will be saved and surely the harassment will reduce . (Read how you can withdraw/transfer your EPF , if your employer is not supporting or helping you) . at this moment , a lot of withdrawal’s happen because employees know that its more easier and do not want to take chance for future issues due to the complex process. Hence this move will help a lot to EPFO department in retaining employees with their EPF’s .

What should you do right now ?

While the EPFO has said that this will be operational from July 1, 2013 , still there might be delays from their end (you know how deadlines work in real life , remember what happened with DTC (Direct Tax Code) ?) . If you can really afford to wait and want to try out this online system, then wait for 2-3 months and then give this a shot, else follow the usual process at this moment.

Conclusion

While its a welcome move and we should trust the EPFO department, still you know what happened with the EPF Online Passbook system by EPF , which is not up-to the mark and there are tons of issues with it. It might happen that this online EPF transfer and withdrawal system is built , but there can be huge disappointment with the way it would work . We can only wait and watch at this moment.

What do you feel about this move ? A lot of people might have faced bad experience while transferring and withdrawing their EPF accounts and would have wondered why dont EPFO makes every thing online. Now it comes !

Yes ! – You can withdraw your EPF without Employer Signature

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Do you know how to withdraw your EPF without Employer Signature ? Do you think if its possible at all ? Is your previous employer not signing your EPF Withdrawal documents? Have you left your company long back and now you can not take your past employer signatures ? Or is your EPF company stuck because your employer is not supporting you or helping you in withdrawal procedure ? Or it might happen that your employer relations with you mess up for some reason and now they are not ready to cooperate in the EPF withdrawal procedure and threatening you? Here are 2 real life examples of these kind of situation

Case 1 : Priyanka was also stuck with a company which was shut down and her PF was stuck

The last company i was working with has been shut down. Now I need to withdraw my EPF, however I am not getting any help from the company. I have tried to contact the GM – HR and the CA but no response. As the sum is huge, I am worried if I will be able to withdraw the amount without company’s approval or authorized signature. The full and final settlement has been closed and relieving letter has been issued by the company. Please advise how should i go about in this case.

Case 2 : Ramz was also facing similar issue but here employer was not supporting the employee for EPF withdrawal

One of my friend was in a similar situation few months back. I have pay slip but no relieving letter. When contacted with the finance dept, I was told that I cannot get the epf amount as I have not got the relieving letter. The amount will not be released by them even though an epf amount is mentioned in pay slip. He was asked to pay the amount for serving period of two months and then get relieving certificate and later only will they release the funds for epf account.

Now the question. Can one withdraw his EPF without the support of his past employer signatures or support ? Yes ! – There is a solution! .

Today we will discuss, how you can withdraw your Employee Provident Fund money without your past employer’s help. A lot of people feel that it’s not possible without employer involvement, but it’s not true! Let me start by sharing a bit about this.

Withdraw Employee Providend Fund without Employer Intervention

Employer can not control EPF money

Each month employer takes the EPF part, out of your salary and along with their contribution, deposit it into your EPF account with the EPFO organisation. Once they deposit it with EPF office, then it’s just your money and no one else’s. Your employer can not control it. However note, that your employer’s signatures are required on the EPF withdrawal form, to certify that you are not employed with them anymore and now you can withdraw the EPF.

A lot of people leave their jobs without serving the notice period or because of some other issue and employers do not help them to claim their Provident Fund money. Here is one instance on our Jagoinvestor Forum

I worked in a company in 2009 for few months. I had some issues with them and resigned from that company. I did not get any relieving order. All I have is my salary slip which has PF account no. Is it possible to get back the PF amount without the permission/notice to the previous employer which I worked ?

3 steps to withdraw your EPF without Employer Signature

Here are 3 steps you need to do to successfully withdraw your EPF without previous employer signatures.

Step 1

First download and fill up Form 19 (for EPF withdrawal) and  Form 10C (for EPS Withdrawal)

Step 2

Get it attested by any one of the following

  • Manager of a bank (PSU preferred)
  • By any gazetted officer.
  • Magistrate / Post / Sub Post Master / Notary

Step 3

Write down a letter addressing the regional PF commissioner, stating the reason why you have to get it attested and how you are facing issues with your employer. In case you have any proof of  unsupportive behaviour from your employer, better attach it. (This step is optional, and not mandatory)

Step 4

If you are unemployed, you will have to make an affidavit that proves that you are unemployed. Download this Affidavit Sample and get it printed on a Rs. 100 stamp paper with a notary or any gazetted officer signature on it (This Affidavit is part of our Jagoinvestor Wealth Club) . This is required because you need to be unemployed if you want to withdraw your EPF . If you are employed, you can transfer your EPF to your new employer.

Step 5

Send these forms to your regional EPF office and wait for next few months for some kind of action.

Step 6

Once your application is processed, the EPF withdrawal request will be honoured and you will be paid. If you still don’t see any action or response, then its time to File an RTI application to EPF Department for finding out the exact Status.

Legal Action against your past employer

Note that Employee provident fund money is totally yours and no matter what the situation, your past employer should be helping you in withdrawing it. It can be some issue your employer or you might have.., your employer can not say that they will not give signatures and create issues in your EPF Withdrawal.

If that’s the case, it might be time to teach them a lesson.

If you are 100% sure that you are correct and it’s a case of harassment, just collect all the documents which proves the harassment and then inform your regional Provided Fund officer about this. He will carry out an enquiry, contact the employer and if he finds them guilty, there can be legal action against the company and might even amount to imprisonment. It’s the Employer’s duty to keep records as per the law and also maintain the terms and conditions, failing which employer can get a notice under a section 7A, which lays the guidelines of strict actions against the employer. I got this from one of the RTI related websites 

Normally, the EPFO which maintained your EPF account should have settled the claim based on the signature of the Bank Manager since you find it difficult to get the form attested by your previous employer. They should not have sent it back to you telling to get the signature of the previous employer. The fact appears to be that the employer is not willing to sign the form for some reason or the other. (I presume the establishment is not closed but is still working). It is the duty of the employer to sign the settlement form. If he fails to do so the Regional Provident Fund Commissioner (RPFC) concerned can take action against him. You can make a complaint to the RPFC pointing this out and urging him to either settle the claim as it is or to get the claim signed by the employer and in case the employer declines to sign to take appropriate action against him instead of harassing you by not settling the claim. Please send this complaint by registered post and keep copy. After about a month if no action is taken file an application under RTI and ask what action has been taken on your complaint,people responsible for not taking action etc. Your claim will automatically be settled.

Conclusion

It’s possible to withdraw your EPF money without the help of your past employer. You just need to know the right steps and should also have the energy and motivation to follow up on the matter. Let us know what did you learn out of this article. Do you think this is something useful for you? From this article, did you understand properly how you can withdraw your EPF without Employer Signature ?

EPF e-Passbook – Check Employee Provident Fund Balance Online

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Good news for EPF account holders. Now you can check your Employee provident fund balance online using the new e-passbook service by EPFO website. EPFO has introduced a new concept called “EPF Account Passbook”, which will allow EPF Account holders to download their EPF Balance passbook at any time they want, which means you can now do EPF balance enquiry each month and see how it’s increasing.

How to register for Employee Provident Fund e-Passbook?

Here are 4 simple steps to register for the Employee Provident Fund e-passbook online and after that you can do the EPF Balance enquiry anytime you want.

Step 1: Register yourself on the website

Register for EPF e-passbook

The first step is to go to the e-passbook members website – http://members.epfoservices.in/ and click on the registration link. Once you are taken to the next page.

Step 2: Generate your PIN and login

Generate EPF epassbook PIN online

You will be taken to the next page where you need to provide details like

  • Mobile number
  • Date of Birth (make sure it matches with EPF records)
  • One of the documents mentioned in the drop-down
  • Name and Number on the document (Like PAN card and the PAN Number)
  • Email

Then you need to click on “Get PIN” button to generate a PIN which will arrive on your mobile and email. This PIN is required for authorization every time you want to download the e-passbook and check your Employee Provident Fund Balance. At this point in time, you will need to log in again which will take you to the main page where you can do your EPF balance enquiry and download the e-passbook.

Step 3: Download the EPF Passbook which has your balance

Download EPF e-passbook PDF

Now on this page, you need to go to option which says “Download E-passbook” and under that click on “Download E-passbook”, It will ask for the state where your establishment is covered like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi etc.. Once you click on the state, it will ask you to choose the exact EPF Office.

Step 4: Enter your EPF details

Finally download the EPF Passbook

Now you need to enter your EPF account number and name of the account holder, and click on “GET PIN”, which will generate the PIN on the fly which will come on your phone and email. You need to now enter this PIN below and you can download the PDF which has your current Employee Provident Fund Balance and other details. Make sure you do not close this page unless you get the PIN. One of our Financial Coaching Client, Jassi tried this whole thing and his experience was good

I followed the same steps. Yes the PIN is received in your mobile after some time, so one needs to be patient. And the page should not be closed until one receives the PIN, to access further. After receiving the PIN, log in to the application. If e-passbook is available, it should be shown immediately. Otherwise, one might have to wait. – On Email from Jassi

Checking your Employee Provident Fund Balance from time to time?

Now with this method, you can keep checking your EPF account balance from time to time, you can check it each month after your salary is deducted and some days pass, or you can also check your PF balance on a quarterly or yearly basis, whatever works for you. I hope you are clear about some hidden and must-know facts about your EPF

Sample EPF e-Passbook

Below is a sample EPF passbook which you can view and download. It shows how EPF e-passbook looks like and different entries made by the employer. But you will see only those entries which were uploaded and updated by your employer. It might happen that some people see their old data only.

sample epf passbook

12 Important points to know about EPF passbook

Here are some of the very important things you should know about the Employee Provident Fund e-passbook facility.

1. One Mobile number

One mobile number can be used for one registration only. However, you can change this mobile number later if you want so in case your mobile number changes, no worries.

2. One EPF account per establishment

You will be able to view only one EPF account details per establishment, means if you have two EPF accounts under Maharashtra (suppose you had a job in Mumbai and Pune), then you will not be able to view both of them, In that case you will need to first transfer one EPF to another. However, you can view your EPF account details which are under different establishments like saying one in Karnataka, Maharastra and Delhi (suppose you had 3 jobs)

3. Total of 10 EPF accounts can be viewed

A total of 10 EPF account details can be viewed under different establishments. I think its very fair logic because, in all probabilities, a person will not have more than 10 EPF accounts in several establishments, if he has, no one can help him anyway 😉

4. Inoperative & Settled EPF account details not available

If someone’s EPF account is inoperative (it happens if you leave the job and for 3 yrs there is no activity in your EPF account, even the interest will not be credited to that account), or the account is settled (you withdrew the amount already) , then your details will not be available. Tip – You can file an RTI application for your EPF queries and get them answered.

5. Details on request if you left the job before Mar 2012

If you have left your job before Mar 2012, then your EPF account may not be seeing any credit in past few months, in that case he will not be able to see the Employee provident fund details immediately, but it can be requested on the website (you will see a link) and that will be uploaded in few days.

6. Available only if the employer has uploaded Electronic Challan Cum Return of May 2012 onwards

This facility is available only to those whose employers have uploaded the Electronic Challan cum return for May 2012 onwards, Electronic Challan is a way of submitting the employee’s contribution to EPFO online, which is recently introduced by EPF organisation.

7. No need to remember user id and password

There is no user id and password, all you need is your mobile number, document name and document number, which we all remember anyways. At the time of downloading your EPF Balance passbook, you will need to generate the PIN online which will be sent to your phone, this will reduce the chances of fraud

8. Private EPF trusts not eligible 

Those employees who have their EPF with private PF trusts (or called as establishments exempted under the EPF Scheme) will not enjoy the benefit of this e-passbook facility, hence they will not be able to check their employee provident fund balance online using this.

9. Use multiple id’s to register

You can add several documents like Driving license, passport, ration card etc in the same account, this way you dont need to remember just one document id and its number, you can log in using any of those which you are carrying at that time.

10. Details and Entries in the EPF passbook

Month and date wise transactions made in member’s account will be displayed in the passbook from the year for which the annual accounts were updated for the establishment for the first time since computerisation of the concerned field office. For example, if the first annual accounts of member’s establishment were updated for the year 2008-09 by the concerned field office after its computerisation, the passbook will display the opening balance for the year 2008-09 and all transactions thereafter.

11. Error while Downloading the passbook

While downloading your EPF passbook, you might see an error saying “YOU HAVE ENTERED INVALID MEMBERS ID OR NAME”.

Please check whether you have entered the correct code & account number and/or name. In case yes, the name may not be matching as per the record in EPFO. In such a case, the member has to contact the concerned EPFO office. At times some entries from EPF passbook might be missing, in which case, the member should check first with the employer whether the returns for the month/year related to the missing entry has been submitted by him to the concerned EPFO office. In case yes then he/she can contact the concerned EPFO office regarding the missing details.

12. Not getting the PIN on your mobile?

Ideally, you should get the PIN on your mobile as soon as you click on “Get PIN”, but if you dont get it fast, it means the lines are busy and you should wait for more time and re-try!

Tip : Use Chrome instead of other browsers, Some components are running smoothly on Chrome, but not on other browsers .

Are you going to check your EPF Passbook?

Is this working for you? Did you try to find out your Employee Provident Fund Balance using this method? Once you are able to do your PF balance enquiry using this way and check your EPF passbook online or not? kindly let us know on the comments section.

10 hidden EPF Rules which will blow your mind

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

We will discuss few EPF rules today. A small part of your salary (12% of your basic salary) is invested in something called EPF or Employee Provident Fund and an equal amount is matched by your employer each month.

This is what 95% of people know, but there are many things which a lot of people don’t know and this article is going to open some not known secrets about EPF rules. So let’s take them one by one in point’s format.

10 hidden EPF Rules

1: You can also nominate someone for your EPF

Do you know that there is also a “nomination” facility in EPF? The nominee will be contacted at the time of death of the person and handed over the money from the provided fund. However, if the nomination is not present (which you should check), it can rise to all sorts of issues while claiming the money.

There is a form called Form 2 which has to be filled to change or update the nomination. Please contact your company finance department or directly send the form to the EPFO department.

2: One can get pension under EPF

Do you know that there is something called EPS (Employee Pension Scheme) in the provident fund? The EPF part is actually for your provided fund and EPS is for your pension.

The 12% contribution made by you from your salary goes into your EPF fully, but the 12% contribution which your employer makes, out of that 8.33% actually goes in EPS (subject to a maximum of Rs 1250) and the rest goes into EPF. To understand it this way, a part of your employer contribution actually makes up your pension corpus.

But there are some caveats to this.

  • One is liable for pension only if one has completed the age of 58.
  • One is liable for pension only if he has completed 10 yrs of service (in case of more than one companies, the EPF should have been transferred, not withdrawn)
  • The minimum Pension per month is Rs 1,000
  • The maximum Pension per month is subject to a maximum of Rs 3,250 per month.
  • Lifelong pension is available to the member and upon his death members of the family are entitled to the pension.

EPF & EPS components

3: No interest is given on EPS (pension part)

You must be thinking that you regularly get compound interest each year on your contribution + employer contribution. But it does not work like that. The compound interest is provided only on the EPF part.

The EPS part (8.33% out of 12% contribution from your employer or Rs 1250 whatever is minimum) does not get any interest. At the time of PF withdrawal, you get both EPF and EPS.

4: You might not get 100% of your Provident Fund money

Imagine your contribution + employer contribution has been a total Rs 3,50,000 to date. Out of this 3,50,000 , suppose 2,50,000 has gone in EPF , and rest 1,00,000 has gone in EPS (for pension) . Now if you quit your job in the 6th year of employment and opt for withdrawal of your Provided Fund money (EPF + EPS actually), then do you think you will get a total of 3,50,000. NO!

That’s because you always get 100% of your EPF part, but for EPS there is a separate rule.

There is something called Table ‘D’, under which its mentioned how much you get at the time of exit from your job, there is a slab for each completed year and you get n times of your last drawn salary (depending on the completed year of service) subject to maximum to Rs 15,000 per month.

So if your salary, in this case, was Rs 30,000 per month, still you will be given only 15,000 * 6.40 = Rs 96,000.

Table D under EPS

Note that the table D is up to 9 yrs only, because if 10 yrs are crossed, then you are liable for a pension.

5: You can invest more in Provident Fund, its called VPF

You can always invest more than 12% of your basic salary in Employee Provident Fund which is called VPF (Voluntary Provident Fund). In this case, the excess amount will be invested in PF and you will keep on getting the interest, but the employer is not supposed to match your contribution. He will just invest up to a maximum of 12% of your basic, not more than that.

6: Withdrawing of EPF amount at job change is illegal

Almost everyone thinks that withdrawing of your Employee Provident Fund amount after a job switch is totally fine and allowed, however as per the EPF Rules, it’s illegal.

You can only withdraw your Employee provident fund money, only if you have no job at the time of withdrawing your money and if 2 months have passed. The only transfer is allowed in case you get a new job and you switch to it.

While there are no cases where EPF office tracks these things and takes up this matter, still just for your information you should know that if you got a new job and took it and then you are applying for withdrawal, it’s illegal as per law.

What in the case of EPS?

In the case of EPS, if the service period is less than 10 years, you have the option to either withdraw your corpus or get it transferred by obtaining a ‘Scheme Certificate’. Once, the service period crosses 10 years, the withdrawal option ceases.

Just for your information, you can withdraw your EPF money without the help of past employer signature by attesting your withdrawal form by a bank manager or some gazetted officer. I hope you are clear about EPF withdrawal rules.

7: One can opt-out of EPF if he wants

Yes!. I know this might be a surprising fact for many, but if one’s basic salary per month is more than Rs 15,000, he has an option to opt-out of PF and not be part of it. In which case he will get all his salary in hand (without anything deducted every month).

But the sad part is that one has to opt-out of Provident Fund at the start of his job. If a person has been part of EPF even once in his life, then he can’t opt-out of it. So if you have already had EPF in your life.

This option is not for you, but if you are new to the job and your PF account number still does not exist, you can tell your employer that you don’t want to be part of Employee provident fund. You will have to fill up form 11 for this.

8: Your EPF gives you some life insurance too

A lot of people might not know that in case a company is not providing group life insurance cover to its employees, in that case, the employee is given a small life cover through EPF. This is because there is something called Employees’ Deposit Linked Insurance (EDLI) scheme and your organization has to contribute 0.5% of your monthly basic pay, capped at Rs 15,000, as premium for your life cover.

However, companies that already have life insurance benefits to employees as part of the company, are exempted from this EDLI scheme. The bad part of this EDLI scheme is that the life cover under this option is very low and that’s the maximum amount of Rs. 60,000. While this is peanuts for most of the people in big cities.

For employees in small scale industries and small cities, this amount of Rs 60,000 will still count something.

9: You can use EPF money can be withdrawn at special occasions

So now you know that EPF withdrawal is not permitted if you are still working. But there are occasions when Employee provident fund withdrawal is allowed.

While you cannot withdraw it fully, you can withdraw a partial amount. Following is a list of events when you can withdraw the Provident Fund amount and the conditions you need to fulfill

1. Marriage or education of self, children or siblings

– You should have completed a minimum of seven years of service.
– The maximum amount you can draw is 50% of your contribution
– You can avail of it three times in your working life.
– You will have to submit the wedding invite or a certified copy of the fee payable.

2. Medical treatment for Self or family (spouse, children, dependent parents)

– For major surgical operations or for TB, leprosy, paralysis, cancer, mental or heart ailments
– The maximum amount you can draw is 6 times your salary
– You must show proof of hospitalization for one month or more with leave certificate for that period from your employer.

3. Repay a housing loan for a house in the name of self, spouse or owned jointly

– You should have completed at least 10 years of service.
– You are eligible to withdraw an amount that is up to 36 times your wages.

4. Alterations/repairs to an existing home for a house in the name of self, spouse or jointly

– You need a minimum service of five years (10 years for repairs) after the house was built/bought.
– You can draw up to 12 times the wages, only once.

5. Construction or purchase of a house or flat/site or plot for self or spouse or joint ownership

– You should have completed at least five years of service.
– The maximum amount you can avail of is 36 times your wages. To buy a site or plot, the amount is 24 times your salary.
– It can be avail of it just once during the entire service.

10: You can file an RTI application for EPF issues

Did you know that you can file an RTI applicable to get any kind of information regarding your EPF? You can file it if you are facing issues like no clarity about EPF balance, no action taken for your EPF withdrawal or transfer. To find out information about other issues on the Provident Fund. I have done a detailed post on how to file an RTI for your EPF issue.

Watch this video to know how to file RTI for EPF withdrawal or transfer issues:

UPDATES

  • In the recent budget 2015, the govt has made it clear that now an employee can choose between EPF and NPS. The employer will have to give this option.
  • Now the new system of UAN is in place for EPF, which has made a lot of things more simpler

Conclusion on EPF rules

The overall Employee provident fund rules are too complicated and very old. A common man does not know all these EPF rules, but knowing these minimum 10 EPF rules will help him in his financial life.

File an RTI application for EPF withdrawal or EPF Transfer Stutus

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Are you frustrated because of the delay in your EPF withdrawal or EPF transfer? Are you waiting from many months or years at times to get any kind of clarity on your EPF status?

Are you frustrated with your EPF withdrawal or transfer?

I have seen countless number of people on this blog and other forums really getting frustrated with waiting and waiting for years at times for their EPF withdrawal/transfer and they don’t get any information or update on the status. It is only when you personally visit the EPFO offices, you get some clarity, but even that does not help. So now if you are fed up with the EPFO office and it’s slow speed of work, what’s the final step you can take? In this article I will show you how you can use file an RTI application and successfully get lot of information and at times get your work done at a speed which you never imagined. Filing RTI application for EPF information has worked wonders for many people and they claim that it works brilliantly (if you do it right way). I know your eyes are shining, but let’s understand some background before you rush to find out how it works!

Some success stories of RTI solving the EPF issues

Case 1

I would like to share the success with RTI. I opted for EPF withdrawal about 4 months back, and did not receive my PF amount until I decided to file an RTI Application. And it was realy shocking to see the amount getting credited to my bank account within 3 days of receipt of application by K.R.PURAM, Bangalore EPFO. – Rohit

Case 2 

My EPF withdrawal issue was resolved with RTI. After submitting the forms, after around 3 months, the EPFO claimed that they transferred my withdrawal money to my bank account. However I didn’t receive the money in my bank account. I raised online grievances for 3 times. Each time I got the same answer saying that the money has been transferred and has not been returned back to EPFO, so it must have been deposited to my bank account and I should check my bank account. Around 6 months went in this process with no results. As a last option, I filed an RTI application and to my surprise, the money got deposited in my bank account in 5 days (with additional interest for 6 months) and also received a reply for my RTI application.If EPF grievance system does not work for you, go for RTI. – Manish

Case 3

Yep RTI does the trick most of the time , I got all my PF issues sorted out with RTI application and have all the written proofs with cheque numbers etc for all my previous transfers. They even informed my about my balances for current year and told that they are yet to prepare the PF a/c’s for my company for the current year , but here are your balances with us. It really helps. – Hitesh

 

What is RTI and how it applies to EPFO office?

RTI as we all know is a common man’s tool to get a speedy and clear information from any govt office. Supreme Court has clearly mentioned under article 19(1) that Right to Information is a part of Right to Speech & Expression. Now, as EPFO comes under the RTI purview, you can file an RTI application and ask anything you want about your EPF. Govt is bound to respond within 30 days to your letter with all the information you had asked. So if you are unclear about what your EPF status is or if your EPF transfer work has even started? Why did your EPF money still not credited in your bank account etc etc… You can ask all these questions and you should be getting the 100% right and clear answers within 30 days. The only point here is that you should be doing it the RIGHT way. So lets see what all you need!

Note : Before filing the RTI , a good idea would be to file a EPF grievance redressal form online

File RTI in 3 easy steps

Step 1: Buying a Postal Order of Rs 10 from Post Office

The first step is to go to Post Office and buy a Postal Order for Rs 10.  It should be in favor of Accounts Officer of the Concerned EPFO Office. Like if you are sending your EPF letter to Bangalore, the Rs. 10 postal order should be in favor of Accounts Officer, EPFO, Bangalore. The fees can also be paid by demand draft, but that would be expensive, better go for Postal order as it is commonly used for RTI.

Step 2: Drafting your RTI letter

The first step is to draft RTI letter for your EPF related queries. All you need to do is write a letter on a normal paper (better take a very high quality A4 size paper). Though there is no specific format for RTI application letter, still there are some rules of drafting it.

  • The letter subject should start as “Application Form for Seeking Information under RTI Act 2005”
  • The letter should be addressed to Central Public Information Officer, Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation, (Provide Concerned PF office address). Refer to this EPFO directory for exact address of PF office for your jurisdiction.
  • Make sure you mention your Name, Address, Contact telephone number and your Email id along with EPF account number.
  • Now, put all your queries which you want to ask regarding your EPF (putting them as bullet points is recommended)
  • As a next thing, you should have a declaration – “I do hereby declare that I am a citizen of India. I request you to ensure that the information is provided before the expiry of the 30 day period after you have received the application”
  • Finally at the end of the letter, mention the proof of payment of fees as – Proof of payment of application fee: Attached Indian Postal Order for Rs. 10 /- dated  dd/mm/yyyy  favoring “Accounts Officer of EPFO” as application fee.
  • And complete the letter by putting your Signature, Place and Date.
  • Sign the letter and Put your Postal address
  • Mention the payment details like Postal order number, issuing post office, date, cash receipt details, etc., towards the end of your application

Following is a sample RTI letter.

EPF withdrawal or EPF Transfer RTI application Template

Download the PDF format here

Step 3 : Send the RTI letter by Registered Post or Speed Post

The final step is to send this RTI letter by Registered post only, as no courier is accepted. Please make sure you keep the acknowledgement receipt carefully for all the future communication (if any). It might be required by you.  Once you complete the 3rd step, the RTI letter should reach the concerned authority in few days and then within 30 days you should be getting the reply within 30 days (as per RTI act).

Two RTI’s application needed in case of transfer of EPF

Note that in case of EPF withdrawal case , all you need to do is file an RTI query for the concerned EPF office. But in case of Transfer of EPF, there are two EPF offices involved, they are Source and Target. For example if you got transferred from Bangalore to Delhi and applied for EPF transfer, then your source EPFO office is “Bangalore” and your Target office is “Delhi”.

You will first have to file an RTI for the Source EPFO office to find out if the transfer has happened from their side or not. It might be the case that they rejected your application and you don’t even know about it. Once you file an RTI to them, you will atleast know what is the exact status. If you get a reply that the Transfer has still not happened, then they will let you know by when it will happen or give some pointers on the situation, but in case they say that they have transferred it from their side, then it means that the issue is on Target EPF office and they might not have processed your transfer yet. In that case the next step is to file second RTI to the target EPFO office.

File an RTI application for the Target EPFO and this time, along with all the details also mention about the first RTI and the response you have got from the Source, so that you show them all the proof of what you have done. Now you should get a reply from them again within next 30 days on what is their action and what is the exact status of your EPF transfer.

Online RTI Filing (For NRI’s or lazy Resident Indians)

For those who are too busy to visit Post office and do RTI filing offline. You can use the services of www.rtination.com for filing the RTI. They will help you create the RTI letter and then you need to download it, sign it, scan it and send it back to them by courier or ordinary post. They would speed post it to the concerned officer and also enclose the fee. At the moment the fees is Rs 150.

Important Points while Filing RTI application

When you file an RTI application, there are some very important points you should remember, because incase you don’t take care of some very critical points, it would mean rejection of your application and unnecessary work again. Here are some important points:

  • Do not address your RTI application to the PIO by his name, just in case he gets transferred or a new PIO is designated in his place, it will be an issue. However addressing the Officer by name has its own advantage like when it reaches his desk, by seeing his name, he might see more interest in opening it and that might mean speedy work. However in my opinion, better not put the exact name of the person.
  • Before filing the RTI, see if checking the status online helps here
  • The matter can be hand written, or typed. There is no compulsion of typing the content.
  • Be very specific while asking the questions, don’t ask unimportant or unnecessary questions, because some states like Karanataka have limits on the number of words in the RTI application (150 incase of Karnataka)
  • Check the exact fees for RTI application for the state where you are sending it. Because it can be different from states to states. Like incase of Haryana, it’s Rs 50, not Rs 10.

You can read about RTI in detail here

Can you share your experience about EPF withdrawal or EPF transfer and in case you have used RTI for resolving the issue? Are you going to use RTI to get your EPF problem solved? Please update your results once you are successful.