The employees’ provident fund (EPF), which is only open to workers or salaried employees working in the companies or business establishments registered under the EPF Act, is a retirement fund that is deducted every month from the salary of the employees over the period of his tenure. It is currently offering an interest of 8.15 per cent. If you want to check you EPF balance, here’s the step-by-step guide:
Through Missed Call
Give a missed call to 9966044425 from your registered mobile number. If the UAN of the member is seeded with your bank account number, Aadhaar and PAN, you will get details of the last contribution and PF balance.
Through SMS
Send an SMS to 7738299899 from your registered mobile number.
“EPFOHO UAN” to 7738299899.
Through UMANG App
You can also check your EPF balance on the UMANG app.
Apart from this, you can also visit EPFO online portal to check the balance.
EPF Withdrawal
Though EPF is a retirement fund that is paid as a pension to employees after retirement, the employees can also withdraw in few conditions. An EPF account holder is allowed to withdraw up to 75 per cent of the corpus after one month of remaining unemployed and the remaining 25 per cent can be withdrawn after two months of unemployment.
In you want to submit the EPF withdrawal claim, you should consider the following factors to avoid rejection. These are the reasons for rejections of EPF withdrawals:
Inaccurate Details
One of the main reasons for denial of a withdrawal claim is that the details given do not match the records available with EPFO. The name and date of birth of the claimant should be matching with the EPFO record.
Incomplete KYC
This is one of the reasons even when details are accurate. If in case your KYC details are not complete and verified, EPFO reserves the right to reject the withdrawal claim. So, to avoid the delay or rejection of requests repeatedly, it is suggested to complete the KYC formalities before applying for withdrawal.
Aadhaar and UAN not linked
For withdrawal purposes, seeding of Aadhar and UAN is required, without which the request can be declined by EPFO, a statutory body looking after all things related to provident funds in India.
Bank Details Not Updated
Another possible reason for the denial of a request can be the non-updation of bank details. PF account holders are required to give the operational bank account number and IFSC code on the EPFO portal. For any settlement, EPFO asks the claimant to ensure bank account details in the login section are correct.
Unclear Signature
If your signature does not match the one available in official records, there is no possibility of withdrawing the money from your PF account. So, to avoid any delays you must ensure your signature is not only clear but must match the official records.
EPF is currently offering an interest of 8.15 per cent. EPFO had lowered the interest on EPF for 2021-22 to an over four-decade low of 8.1 per cent for its about five crore subscribers, from 8.5 per cent in 2020-21 in March 2022. This was the lowest since 1977-78, when the EPF interest rate stood at 8 per cent.
The 8.5 per cent interest rate on EPF deposits for 2020-21 was decided by CBT in March 2021.
(The article was originally published on April 9, 2023)
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