EPF Withdrawal Claims Apart From COVID-19 Advances May Take Longer

Due to shortage of staff, KYC compliance issues and other lockdown related restrictions, EPF claims other than those made towards the EPF Pandemic Facility could be delayed.

In a text notification to members of the EPF (Employees' Provident Fund) scheme on Wednesday, the retirement body said, "Settlement of Covid19 advance claims are being given high priority by EPFO and, for faster relief, you can apply for this even if you have already made any other claim. We are processing other claims too but disposal is affected due to lockdown. Hope you will bear with us."

Last week, CNBC-TV18 citing sources reported that EPFO had received about 1 lakh applications for the EPF withdrawal relaxation provided by the Finance Ministry under the PM Garib Kalyan Yojana to help those facing financial constraints due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The labour ministry had said that claims made towards the EPF pandemic advance facility would be settled in three days of receiving the application, however, many complaints surfaced on EPFO's twitter handle as its website and grievance portal suffered outages.

There was also a lack of awareness of the requirement to seek approval from respective employers' of the applicants, which could have been delayed due to a halt in operations of certain businesses from the lockdown.

In a tweet on 3 April, EPFO said, "KYC details have to be approved by your employer on employer portal online. Kindly contact your employer. and for grievance registration due to some technical issue site is not working so please try after sometime."

Note that before you make EPF claims for the COVID-19 Advance facility, your UAN needs to be activated and linked with Aadhaar, mobile number, as well as, your bank account.

Last month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced a 'pandemic advance facility' to employees, wherein members of EPF can withdraw up 75 percent of the amount accumulated or 3 months' basic salary and dearness allowance, whichever is less.

Those unemployed for over a month can avail an advance of 75 percent of entire PF accumulation without any need to submit unemployment-related documents.