EPFO turns employee-friendly

Moving a step closer to online settlement of PF withdrawal claims, retirement fund body EPFO on Tuesday allowed its subscribers to file their applications directly to the body without employers’ attestation.

At present, subscribers submit their claims regarding provident fund withdrawals manually through their present or former employers.

The attestation of the forms was mandatory for the purpose. This facility will be available to all those subscribers whose Universal (or portable PF) Account Number (UAN) is activated and seeded with the KYC details like bank account and Aadhaar number.

“The facility of filing withdrawal claims directly to EPFO will help us eventually launching facility for settling such applications online. We hope that now we would be able to launch the online PF withdrawal facility within this fiscal,” EPFO’s Central Provident Fund commissioner K.K. Jalan said.

“Employees whose det-ails like Aadhaar Number and Bank Account Number have been seeded in their UAN and whose UAN have been activated, may submit claims in Form-19, Form-lOC and Form 31 directly to the Commissioner without attestation of their employers for fast settlement of claims.. direction be made operational with immediate effect,” the EPFO office order issued said.