Get your PF money in 3 hours

EPFO is all set to embrace technology in a major way, enabling online withdrawal of PF funds and quicker settlement of claims.

It used to be quite a task to settle and get money from a PF account, especially for employees in the private sector. It was so cumbersome that people would prefer to give up on the money while changing jobs or companies because every new job meant a new PF account.

Now, the Employee Provident Fund Organisation plans to make PF withdrawal an effortless exercise. It plans to go online and promises to facilitate PF withdrawal in merely three hours. All employees will need to do is link their Aadhaar eKYC with their PF account.

It’s a dream come true for employees across the country. EPFO is all set to embrace technology in a major way, which will not only enable online withdrawal of PF funds but also bring down the time required to settle claims. The organisation is in the process of integrating its complete IT infrastructure, connecting all the 123 field offices spread across the nation with one central server, for instant verification of the claim and for allocation of the funds to the respective bank accounts within three hours. It is learnt that already 50 of these field offices have been connected with the central server.

In the past, EPFO had taken several steps to ease off PF withdrawal and settlement. From a period of 60 days, it has brought down the standard settlement period to 20 days within which the money is deposited in the employee’s bank account. 

The facility is expected to be operational by May. Meanwhile, 31 March is the deadline for linking Aadhaar card for every PF account holder.

EPFO currently receives close to 1 crore applications manually, for settlement of withdrawal claims, pension fixation or getting group insurance benefits by deceased persons.