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In just 10 days, over 1.37 lakh claims amounting nearly ₹280 crore were settled under the Employees Provident Fund Scheme (EPF) under the new withdrawal norm introduced in the wake of COVID-19.
According to new norm, any member of EPF Scheme employed in any establishment or factory located in an area declared as affected by outbreak of any epidemic or pandemic permitted a non-refundable advance from the provident fund account of such member not exceeding basic wages and dearness allowances for three months or up to 75 per cent of the amount standing to his credit in the Fund, whichever is less. This norm came into effect from March 29. As on date, there are over 6 crore EPF subscribers.
According to a Labour Ministry statement, EPF Organisation processed about 1.37 lakh claims across the country disbursing an amount of ₹ 279.65 crore. The system as it stands today is processing all applications which are fully KYC (Know Your Customer) compliant within less than 72 hours. Members, who have applied for claims in some other category, can also file claim to fight pandemic and depending upon the KYC compliance condition of each member, every effort is being made to settle claims at the earliest, it said.
Anticipating the huge surge in the demand, EPFO came out with a completely new software which has been developed from scratch and a receipt module for on-line receipt of the claims was introduced within 24 hours and deployed on 29th March 2020. Further, the application was required to be in paperless form to curtail any physical movement in view of social distancing. It was decided to introduce a system of settling claims in auto mode directly by the system in respect of all such members whose KYC requirements was complete in all respects.
Claims for availing advance to fight pandemic are filed online.. EPFO has relaxed date of birth correction criteria to ease KYC compliance enabling submission of claim to fight pandemic online. EPFO would accept the date of birth recorded in the Aadhaar card of a subscriber as a valid proof for rectification of the date of birth in PF records. All cases with variation in date of birth up to three years are now being accepted by EPFO.
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