In a bid to enhance ease of living for its millions of members, Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has now introduced auto-mode settlement of advance claims for the purpose of education & marriage and housing, a government release said.
Auto mode of claim settlement was introduced in April, 2020 for the purpose of advance for illness. But now this limit has been enhanced to Rs 1,00,000 from Rs 50,000 earlier. “During the current year, around 2.25 crore members (22.5 million) are expected to reap the benefits of this facility,” said the release. In the auto claim Solution, in-claim is processed automatically by IT system without any human intervention.
During the financial year 2023-24, EPFO settled around 44.5 million claims, out of which more than 60% (28.4 million) claims were advance claims. Out of total advance claims settled during the year, around 8.95 million claims were settled using auto-mode, said the release.
The entire process in auto-settlement is IT system driven, eliminating human intervention. Any claim with KYC, eligibility and bank validation is processed for payment by IT tools automatically. As a result of this, the periodicity of claim settlement is reduced significantly from 10 days to within 3-4 days for such advances, said the release.
The expansion of the scope of the auto claims to the housing, marriage and education purposes as well as enhancement will directly help many members to avail their funds within the shortest possible duration, which will substantially aid them in promptly meeting their education, marriage, or housing requirements. Introduced on 6th May 2024 pan India, and since then EPFO has approved 13,011 cases for Rs. 45.95 crores vide this initiative providing speedy service, the release said.