Having faced flak for the delays in claim settlements, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has decided to introduce a single-page claim form, instead of current multiple forms for withdrawing funds accumulated with the retirement fund body. Moreover, a self-certification will suffice henceforth to withdraw funds.
“The composite form duly signed by the subscriber shall be construed as self-certification for withdrawals, for which no documents would be required to be submitted to the EPFO offices,” said a senior official. The single-page claim form will also apply for those accounts not seeded with Aadhaar, but in that case, the subscriber will have to get the employers’ signature, as is the practice now.
Under the extant rules, a subscriber has to provide various certificates as a proof of the need for the withdrawal for purposes. If one wants to withdraw for housing purposes, she/he has to submit the utilisation certificate. Under the new declaration form, it has been dispensed with.
Similarly, for marriage advance or for availing advance for post-matriculation education of children, no document, including marriage card, would be required to be submitted. Under the existing rules, an EPFO subscriber can partly withdraw his accumulations on 6-7 grounds. A maximum of 90% of the accumulated fund can be withdrawn for house building purpose. Full withdrawal is not permitted until a subscriber is out of job for at least two months.
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However, to avail advances for medical reasons, the existing practice of mandatory submission of medical certificate would continue for some time even as the EPFO is planning to do away with that as well. This would require changes in the scheme for which a proposal has been sent, the official said.
The EPFO corpus is created through a 12% contribution from the employee’s salary along with a matching contribution from the employer and the interest accrued on the entire money. EPFO has 3.4 crore active subscribers.