Filing online PF withdrawal claims to be a reality in December

Retirement fund body EPFO will launch the online facility for submitting provident fund withdrawal claims in December, which would quicken such settlements and benefit its over five crore (50 million) subscribers.

At present, the subscribers of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) have to file PF settlement claims manually after they leave job or post their retirement. The online application of such claims would enable EPFO to eventually settle those within three days.

"EPFO has decided to provide the facility of online application for PF withdrawal claims. It will be launched by mid December," a source said.

According to the source, all those subscribers whose PF and bank accounts are linked with Aadhaar number would be able to avail this facility.

Elaborating further he said that since Aadhaar number provide anywhere anytime authentication of identity on the basis of captured biometric details of a person, there would be remote chances of fraud or cheating.

A senior official said that sometimes EPFO takes more than mandated 30 days for settling provident fund withdrawals claims due to various reasons including errors while filling the manual form.

He said, "EPFO would eventually settle all type of claims including PF withdrawal and transfer within three days of filing those applications."

The body has planned to settle 20-30 per cent of PF claims online by the end of this financial year. During the last fiscal, it had settled a total of 1.21 crore claims including over a million PF transfer cases.

The body has recently issued over four crore Universal PF Account Numbers (UAN) which are being seeded with Aadhaar number and bank accounts. This portable PF account would enable subscribers to have only one account while working with various employers throughout his/her life.