Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister for Labour and Employment | Photo Credit: ANI
To simplify provident fund claim settlement process, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has removed the time consuming requirement of uploading the image of a cheque leaf or attested bank passbook while filing online claims.
It has also done away with the mandatory need for taking the employer approval for seeding bank account details with Universal Account Number (UAN), the Ministry of Labour and Employment said on Thursday.
Union Minister for Labour and Employment, Mansukh Mandaviya said that the two major reforms introduced will make the “claim settlement process simpler, faster, and hassle-free for crores of EPF members & employers.”
The EPFO ran a pilot project from May 28, 2024, to do away with the requirement of uploading an image of the cheque leaf or attested bank passbook. On the basis of feedback, which showed that so far 1.7 crore EPF members have already benefited from the relaxation, the Ministry decided to extend it to over 7.7 crore subscribers of the Organisation.
The Ministry also said that as the bank account holder’s name is already verified with the EPF member’s details at the time of bank account seeding with the UAN, this additional documentation is no longer necessary.
By removing this requirement, EPFO is set to immediately benefit around 6 crore members, eliminating claim rejections due to poor-quality/unreadable uploads and reducing associated grievances, said the Ministry.
On the bank account seeding with UAN, the EPFO removed the requirement of employer approval after bank verification.
During the FY25, 1.3 crore members submitted requests for seeding their bank accounts. The employee requests after due matching with the respective Bank/NPCI are to be approved by the Employer through DSC/E-Sign.
Around 36,000 requests for seeding of bank account are being raised by the members on a daily basis and the banks take an average of 3 days to complete the verification, the Ministry stated.
After the bank verification, the average time taken by the employer to approve the process is about 13 days, resulting in piling up of workload at the level of the employer and consequent delay in the seeding of bank account for the member.
Further, this approval step is not adding any value to the verification process, the Ministry observed.
Published on April 3, 2025
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