The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) faced issues due to the staff shortage and inadequate digital infrastructure, leading to delays in claim settlement. To address the problem, EPFO made three key changes late last month to the claim settlement process for flexibility and convenience to members. Here are the key changes members should know.

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Auto Claim Settlement: 

The EPFO has extended the auto settlement facility for claims related to education and marriage under Para 68K and house construction/renovation under Para 68B of the EPF scheme. These changes aim to fast-track the settlement process, according to a labour ministry’s press release on May 13. The facility was launched in April 2020 but was available only for medical treatments up to Rs 50,000 for self and family members. In April this year, EPFO increased the limit to Rs 1 lakh. Also, it reduced the settlement process to 3-4 days from an average of 10 days earlier.

According to labour ministry data, 4.45 crore claims were settled in 2023-24, of which 2.84 crore, around 60 per cent, were related to fund withdrawals for illness, education, and marriage. Of the total claims, 89.52 lakh claims were settled through the auto claim process.

Aadhaar Seeding For Death Claim:

EPFO has temporarily allowed death claim settlements without the need to seed Aadhaar with the universal account number (UAN). For claim settlements, UAN and Aadhaar details should match. Any discrepancy will lead to rejection. In a May 17, 2024 circular, EPFO announced allowing nominees or the legal heirs of dead EPF members to process death claims even if they haven’t linked or seeded their Aadhaar with UAN. However, the claims can only be settled after the office-in-charge (OIC) verifies the details and confirms the claimants’ genuineness.    

This change aims to help reduce the number of pending claims. Note that a claim can be settled even if Aadhaar seeding is pending or details are incorrect or do not match UAN. However, claims can be rejected if Aadhaar details are correct, but UAN information is incomplete or inaccurate. In that case, EPFO must amend the UAN details before settlement.

Relaxation in Cheque and Bank Passbook Uploading:

Given the frequent rejection of online claims due to the non-uploading of a cheque or bank passbook image, EPFO has done away with this rule for claim settlement. In a circular on May 28, 2024, EPFO announced, “With a view to facilitate the speedy settlement of claims filed online and to reduce the rejection of claims due to non-uploading of the image of cheque leaf/attested bank passbook while filing claims online, it has been decided  to relax the requirement of mandatory uploading of the image for eligible cases based on certain validations, which include online verification of the bank KYC by concerned bank/NPCI, verification of bank KYC by the employer using DSC, seeded Aadhaar number verified by UIDAI, among others.”

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So, if the bank now verifies the KYC details of the EPF member online or an employer digitally signs the verification details, a cheque copy or a bank passbook attested image is not mandatory. To make it easier for the verifying officers, colour tagging will be introduced soon to identify cases where a cheque or bank passbook is not mandatory.

Besides these changes, it has also made link arrangements between zones, delegating regional offices (DRO) and collaborating regional offices (CRO) to settle multi-location claims within the prescribed time. The Central Provident Fund Commissioner (CPFC) will monitor its implementation.