New Delhi, Jan 19: The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has introduced major changes to simplify key processes for its 7.6 crore subscribers by cutting down circuitous approvals that led to delays and inconvenience.

Labour and Employment Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said the EPF members, who have linked their Universal Account Number with their Aadhaar number, can file their transfer claims online using the one-time password generated using their Aadhaar. For this too, the intervention of the employer is not needed now.

Members will now be able to self-correct personal details, including name, address and bank details, by logging in to the EPFO website. "Such changes by Aadhaar-verified account holders will no longer require the approval of the employer,” the minister said.

This revision will immediately benefit around 3.9 lakh members whose requests are pending at various stages. If any member who can self-approve has already filed his request which is pending with the employer, the member can delete the already filed request and self-approve as per the simplified process. The majority of the cases could directly be self-approved by the members themselves or in some selected cases by the employer.

Out of the total eight lakh requests received at EPFO for correction through employers in FY 2024-25, almost 45 per cent of the change requests can be self-approved by the member without the employer’s verification or approval at EPFO. On average, this will eliminate a delay of nearly 28 days taken by the employer to approve Joint Declarations. The request for change of EPF Account holders not having a full e-KYC shall get approved at the employer level in approximately another 50 per cent of the cases without the requirement for any approval at EPFO, the Minister said.

At present, around 27 per cent of the grievances filed by the members relate to member profile/KYC issues and with the introduction of the revised JD functionality, it is expected that there shall be a drastic reduction in the number of grievances being filed by the members, the Minister explained.

To rectify common errors in recording name, marital status and service details during the registration process or later, an employee had to make a request online with supporting documents. The request would have to be verified by the employer and then forwarded to EPFO for approval, a process called joint declaration.

“The EPFO has simplified this process on the EPFO portal by allowing an employee to self-correct most common errors in his personal details without verification by the employer and approval by the EPFO if an employee has a valid universal account number (UAN) issued after October 1, 2017, when Aadhaar matching was made compulsory,” the minister said.

If the UAN was issued prior to October 1, 2017, corrections can be made by the employer without EPFO’s approval. The requirement of supporting documents has also been simplified for such cases.

“The EPFO is in the process of implementing various other reforms. Our goal is to bring EPFO services on a par with bank services,” the Minister said.

--IANS

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