The Employees’ Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme (EDLI) comes under the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) purview. Any organisation employing 20 or more employees must offer Employee Provident Fund (EPF) benefits to its employees, and those who are members of EPFO become eligible for EDLI benefits automatically. As per the latest EPFO data, there are around 27.74 crore EPF accounts.

Employees’ Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme (EDLI):

In EDLI, the employer contributes 0.50 per cent of the employee’s basic salary plus a dearness allowance of up to Rs 15,000. To avail of the benefits, the employee must work for at least 12 months in the organisation and be an active EPF member. The insurance cover remains applicable even if the employee changed jobs in the last 12 months before death.

How Can A Nominee Or Legal Heir Claim Insurance Benefits?

If the employee dies during service, a lump sum of up to Rs 7 lakh and a minimum of Rs 2.5 lakh is paid to the beneficiary. The claim amount is calculated based on the last 12 months’ salary along with a certain percentage of the monthly average salary in the previous year.

Also Read: Employees’ Deposit-Linked Insurance Scheme Offers Up To Rs 7 Lakh Coverage For Free; Know More About EDLI 

How To Claim EDLI Insurance Offline?

• A nominee is required to submit Form 51F to claim insurance benefits under EDLI. This form can be easily downloaded from the official EPFO website. The nominee must fill out the form, get it signed by the employer with whom the employee was last employed, and submit it to the authority.
• However, in case the company is closed or there is no authorised person from the employer, the form can be attested by any of these: a magistrate, gazette officer, member of parliament or member of the legislative assembly, president of the village panchayat having no Union Board, Post or sub-postmaster, municipal or district local board chairman, secretary or member, member of CBT or regional committee of EPF, bank manager where the bank account is maintained, or head of a recognised educational institution.
• One should keep all the information, such as region Code, office code, establishment code number, PF account number, bank name, branch, and bank address where the beneficiary is maintaining the account, ready to fill in the form.
• The bank details should be filled out correctly to receive the benefit directly in the account. To ensure the accuracy of the details, a copy of a cancelled or blank cheque needs to be attached to the form.
• According to the EPFO’s instructions, while claiming EDLI benefits, the claimant also needs to submit Form 20 to claim provident fund dues and Form 10D or 10C for pension benefits so that all the EPFO schemes, employees’ provident fund, employees pension scheme, and EDLI can be processed simultaneously.
• Furthermore, the claimant can mention the mobile number on the form to receive SMS alerts.

How To Claim EDLI Insurance Online?

Step 1: First, visit the EPFO members portal online.

Step 2: Click on the ‘Death claim filing by beneficiary’ on the bottom right of the page.

Step 3: The new page will open. Fill out the beneficiary name, date of birth, Universal Account Number (UAN), and Aadhaar number, and enter the captcha in the box.

Step 4: Click on ‘Get Authorization Pin’. Enter the PIN received on the beneficiary’s Aadhaar-linked mobile number and submit.

Step 5: Fill out bank details and attach documents such as a death certificate, cancelled bank cheque or passbook copy, and beneficiary’s proof of date of birth, then submit to the EPFO.

Note that EDLI benefits can be claimed provided the member was working with an EPF-registered firm at the time of death. Otherwise, the family members will not receive EDLI benefits.