1 lakh job scheme members miss sop on EPFO-Aadhaar data mismatch

“Information mismatch” between the EPFO Universal Account Number (UAN) and Aadhaar details has led to the failure of claims of over one lakh beneficiaries of two Central job schemes for which the retirement fund body is the nodal agency.

Those affected are beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Protsahan Yojana (PMRPY) and the Pradhan Mantri Paridhan Rozgar Protsahan Yojana (PMPRY), schemes launched by the Centre in August 2016 to incentivise creation of jobs in the formal sector. Under the schemes, new employees with EPF accounts would receive a government contribution of 8.33 per cent for the first three years.

EPFO was charged with verifying the credentials of beneficiaries and payment of benefits. The beneficiary would need to seed her UAN with Aadhaar to be eligible.

The Employees Provident Fund Organisation has directed all its field offices to rectify the glitch by June 30. A June 8 letter from the EPFO to its field offices read: “…as per available data on 8.06.2017, it is seen that the claims of 1,05, 591 EPF members have failed due to information mismatch... thereby preventing a large number of intended beneficiaries to avail the benefits.”

Further, it has asked its offices to contact employers and employees and get the Aadhaar card details ‘physically verified vis-a-vis relevant records’.

While processing claims for benefits under the Central job schemes, the Aadhaar details of the beneficiaries are matched with the member’s master details in the EPFO database, and payment is released in case of a match, EPFO said in the letter. It was at that stage that the “information mismatch” was found, leading to denial of claims to eligible beneficiaries.

In a release of Tuesday, the EPFO said it had directed all its field offices to ensure that Aadhaar was furnished by the employer in respect of “all new members who join the Employee Pension Scheme, 1995 with effect from July 1, 2017,” except the North-East, where it would be applicable from October 1, 2017.

“Further, the claim-settlement period has been reduced to 10 days, from 20 days, and the grievance redressal period is reduced to 15 days, from 20 days,” the release said.

For the benefit of international workers, the EPFO has issued new instructions for employers regarding COC (Certificate of Coverage). “Employer is advised to submit the application form for COC one month in advance and COC are issued prior to departure of the employee from India,” the release said, adding that there should not be any overlapping of the period of coverage.