EPFO to launch digital fund transfer system; pensioners can now avail benefits quickly

The Ministry of Labour & Employment vide notification has provided for electronic or digital fund transfer/ payment of EPF benefits, pension disbursement and insurance claim.

Mumbai, May 19: To ensure quick transfer of funds, the government will now make payments to Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) beneficiaries through electronic or digital fund transfer system. This move by the government is likely to benefit 4.5 crores EPF subscribers and around than 54 lakh pensioners.

The Ministry of Labour & Employment vide notification dated 4th May 2017 has provided for electronic or digital fund transfer/ payment of EPF benefits, pension disbursement and insurance claim. For this purpose, suitable amendments have been made in all the three social security schemes administered by EPFO.  Now, payments will be made through digital fund transfer system for easier tracking and reconciliation thereof.

EPFO has over four crore subscribers and receives 1 crore claims every year. These claims include EPF withdrawal, pension fixation, and insurance claims. The Labour Ministry recently amended the social security schemes run by the retirement fund body EPFO to enable it to make all payments like pension, provident fund and insurance to the members electronically. As per a report by Financial Express, it was provided in the schemes run by EPFO that the body can make payments to its subscribers through various modes like money order, cheques or electronically.

In a major development, the EPFO has reduced the stipulated period for settlement of various claims such PF withdrawal, pension and insurance to 10 days from 20 at present, PTI reported. The EPFO, in July 2015 had reduced the timeline for settling various claims to 20 day to improve the service delivery for its over four crore subscribers.

Earlier this month, the EPFO launched the online claim settlement facility and has planned to eventually settle claims of all Aadhaar and bank account seeded EPF accounts within three hours of receipt of an application. “The timeline in case of claim settlements is 10 days and 15 days in case of grievance redressal management,” an EPFO statement said.