New EPF account rules in May:
EPFO made these four major changes to the EPF account, claims process in May 2024
Jun 4, 2024
Synopsis
New EPF rules: The changes include an extended facility of auto-settlement, multi-location claim settlement, faster New rule for EPF death claim. Let us take a closer at each of these four changes.
The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has relaxed several regulations to make life easier for Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) members in May 2024. The changes include an extended facility of auto-settlement, multi-location claim settlement, faster death claims.
Let us take a closer at each of these four changes.
Facility of auto-settlement
In a press release dated May 13, 2024, the auto-settlement facility for housing under Rule 68B and education and marriage under Rule 68K was announced.
A circular dated April 16, 2024 increased the amount under Rule 68J for receiving an advance for a medical condition. April 2020 saw the introduction of the facility. Now all claims up to Rs 1 lakh under these heads will be auto-processed without any human intervention.
Rule 68J of the 1952 EPF Scheme deals with taking a part of money from an EPF account, known as an advance, to cure illness in specific instances. The advance is offered for either the members' or their family members' treatment.
Rule 68K permits withdrawals from EPF funds for marriage or higher education of children. The withdrawal is permitted for the marriage of the self, daughter, son, brother, or sister, or for the further education of the son or daughter.
New EPF auto-settlement claim rules for medical, education, marriage, housing: How to use this facility, eligibility
Faster EPF claim settlement
To expedite claim settlement within the timeframes specified. A link office setup for multi-location claim settlement is being made, the EPFO said in a recent circular. It will minimize delays by evenly dispersing the burden linked to claim settlement across the country.
By allowing for multi-location claim settlement, this feature will speed up member claims processing and replace the current geographical jurisdiction structure along with productivity in offices nationwide.
This facility was first launched in 2020 by the EPFO department.
According to the EPFO circular dated May 8, 2024, “The effective functioning of the link arrangement between Delegating Regional Office (DRO) - Collaborating Regional Office (CRO) shall be the responsibility of the RPFCs In-charge of both these offices, who are expected to work in close co-ordination to ensure that the desired results in the claim settlement periodicity is achieved without any issues.
Faster EPF claim settlement: EPFO multi-location claim settlement to speed up member claims
New rule for EPF death claim
It has been decided that going forward, in all such death cases, processing physical claims without seeding Aadhaar may be permitted as a temporary measure, but only with the proper approval of the OIC in an e-office file duly recording the details of verification done to confirm the deceased's membership and the genuineness of the claimants. Preventing any fraudulent withdrawals can be done in addition to other due diligence measures that the OIC deems appropriate.
This move came as family members are unable to seed and authenticate Aadhaar in cases of death of EPF members. In such cases, filed officers were unable to process the aforementioned physical claims, which resulted in an unnecessary delay in the timely disbursement of payments to the affected claimants, the EPSO stated in a circular issued on May 17, 2024.
New rule for EPF death claim: Now physical claims can be processed without seeding Aadhaar
The above instructions would apply only to those cases where the details of the member are correct in UAN but inaccurate/incomplete in Aadhaar database. According to the EPFO circular dated May 17, 2024,
Mandatory uploading of cheque leaf image
The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPF) has relaxed the requirement of mandatory uploading of the image of cheque leaf, attested bank passbook for certain eligible cases.
This would facilitate the settlement of online claims more quickly and lower the amount of rejected claims resulting from the failure to submit an image of the certified bank passbook or cheque leaf at the time of online claim filing.
According to the EPFO circular dated May 28, 2024, “With a view to facilitate the speedy settlement of claims filed online and to reduce the rejection of claims due to the reason of non-uploading of the image of cheque leaf/ attested bank passbook while filing claims online, it has been decided with the approval of the CPFC to relax the requirement of mandatory uploading of the image of cheque leaf/ attested bank passbook for certain 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.”
[The Economic Times]
