All employees need to have only one UAN throughout their working life irrespective of the number of companies they change.
Do you know the total accumulated balance in your employees provident fund (EPF)? In case you want to know the balance and are unable to do so, it is an easy process if you have been allotted an Universal Account Number (UAN) by the EPFO.
In case you do not have your 12-digit UAN, you can get it activated through your employer to know the summary of PF deducted through EPFO portal. All employees need to have only one UAN during their entire working life irrespective of the number of companies they change. It is a universal account number (UAN) which enables in linking of multiple EPF accounts of a member.
To check your EPFO account and access your provident fund passbook online, you need to follow these simple steps:
Step 1
Employees need to login the member portal by visiting the EPFO website ( https://unifiedportalmem.epfindia.gov.in/memberinterface/ ). You need to enter your 12 digit Activated UAN number and the password to view your account details. If you have not activated your UAN, you can do it by clicking on the tab below. Once you have entered the right credentials, it takes four days to activate your UAN.
Step 2
Once you have entered into the portal, you can find all kind of online services that are available on the EPFO website. From there you can track your queries related to claim status, transferring request, which is required in case your current employer has created another UAN number to track your PF account.
Step 3
You can see various tabs present on the dark green ribbon above. Clicking on the ‘view’ tab will take you to visit your profile, service history, UAN card and your passbook address. This passbook address is a separate website link where you can view your PF account.
Step 4
To view your PF passbook, you need to visit epfindia.gov.in website. This is a different website where you can view various other details related to EPFO. You need to go to the ‘our service’ tab and under our service tab, you need to click on the ‘for employees’ link. To view the EPF contributions done by your employer every month you need to then click on the ‘member passbook’ link.
Step 5
Once you click on the member passbook link, you will be sent to a different tab, where you need to again enter your activated UAN and same EPFO passwords which you used for the EPFO member login portal.
Step 6
Once you have entered your credentials, you can visit your EPF passbook and view your PF contribution made by the company.
The government has come up with various other benefits where they are giving special benefits to employees who had to leave their current job due to some physical incapacitation. If you want to visit the office, you may even locate the nearest EPFO office through this EPFO website, you can also view the eligibility for making online claims and obtain lots more service facilities through this online portal.
One should also know that the accumulated amount is payable on retirement, resignation or death. You can also make partial withdrawals for financing life insurance policies, acquiring a house, wedding of self or dependents, child’s education planning or any treatment of illness etc.
Now, your PF account will be transferred automatically when you switch to a new job
A Times of India’s report states that from September, the Provident Fund of the present organisation will be transferred to the subsequent office that is joined, automatically.
V P Joy, the chief Provident fund commissioner, stated said, “Aadhaar has been made compulsory for enrollment and we don’t want the closure of any accounts. As the PF account is the permanent account, the employee, for social security, can retain the same account.
To make this process more employee-friendly, the commissioner of the Provident fund, is taking a lot of initiatives in the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). However, retirement fund body faced a major challenge regarding the premature closure of accounts whenever the employee changes a job.
The department is trying to ensure that whenever there is a job change, the money is transferred within three days, without any application. The process will soon make sure that, in future, if the employee has a verified Aadhaar ID then the corresponding Provident fund account will be transferred without any application, wherever the worker goes in the country.
According to EPFO, it is mandatory to submit the Aadhaar number for all the subscribers as well as the pensioners. This will help in linking the EPF account, pension account of the employee, bank account and Aadhaar number. This would ultimately help in providing a plethora of online facilities to subscribers like online withdrawal and fixation of pension.
References: Moneycontrol