All organised sector employees must have an Employees Provident Fund (EPF) account for retirement savings. Under the scheme, the employee and employer each contribute up to 12 per cent of the staff’s basic monthly salary to the EPF account. However, while the employee’s entire 12 per cent goes towards the EPF account, the employer’s contribution is divided into two parts: 3.67 per cent for EPF and 8.33 per cent for the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS).

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When Can You Withdraw EPF Funds?

The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) Act discourages people from withdrawing their accumulated PF funds except during emergencies under specific conditions defined in the rules.

For instance, if you leave the job at 50 instead of the retirement age of 58 after having worked for 10 years or more. In that case, you will get a reduced pension. You can also withdraw funds if you have been unemployed for over two months but served the company between six months and 10 years. Similarly, one can withdraw the entire PF amount in a lump sum if the individual served the firm for less than 10 years but retired at 58. In this case, there will be no pension.

EPF Withdrawal Limit

Different situations allow different withdrawal amounts from your provident fund. For example, you can withdraw up to 50 per cent of the PF funds for a wedding for yourself or someone else in the family. You can withdraw 12 times your salary from the PF fund for home renovations. Also, during a medical emergency, EPF allows you to withdraw six times your present salary from the accumulated fund, whichever is less. It also will enable withdrawals of up to 90 per cent of the PF fund for home loan repayment.

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Online EPF Withdrawal Process

To withdraw money from your PF account, you must follow the following steps.

1) Visit the Unified Member Sewa Portal to log into your PF account with the password and the 12-digit Universal Account Number (UAN) provided by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).

2) Click the option “Online services” and download the applicable for the withdrawals such as Form31,19, 10C and 10D.

3) Your member details, KYC and other service information will appear on the screen.

4) Enter your bank account number and click verify

5) Then, select the appropriate withdrawal option in the form.

6) Enter your permanent address, tick the disclaimer section and select “Get Aadhaar OTP”.

7) You will receive the OTP on your Aadhaar-linked mobile number.

8) Enter the OTP and validate it.

9) Then, click submit. EPFO will send a confirmation of the application received via SMS.

10) After that, it will transfer the amount to your registered bank savings bank account.