The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has now provided an online facility on the member portal to enable application for higher pension under the joint option. Employees who retired before September 1, 2014 and had exercised the joint option for higher pension under the scheme can now log onto the UAN portal of the EPFO and submit their applications.
This comes after the EPFO had on December 29, 2022 issued guidelines to implement a part of the Supreme Court ruling of November on higher pension. It had said that pensioners who, as employees, had contributed to the pension scheme on salaries exceeding the then prevalent wage cap of Rs 5,000 and Rs 6,000, and had jointly applied with their employer for such a contribution, but whose request was declined by the PF authorities, would be able to apply digitally or online on the EPFO website.
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The Supreme Court in its ruling in November 2022 had upheld the Employees’ Pension Scheme amendment of 2014, giving another opportunity to subscribers to opt for the higher pension payout. Employees who were existing EPS members as on September 1, 2014 can contribute up to 8.33% of their ‘actual’ salaries — as against 8.33% of the capped salary — towards pension. However, this part of the order has been suspended for six months, during which time the legislature may bring in amendments to generate additional source of funds to the EPS Scheme.