Employee Provident Fund (EPF) is a government saving scheme that provides all employees support to cover their expenses after retirement. EPF is also known as Provident Fund or PF. Under this scheme, both the employee and the employer contribute to the fund every month. The accumulated funds attract an interest rate of 8.5% per annum. Employees can also check their accumulated corpus online and offline under the EPF claim status facility.
This article explores different components of the EPF claim status in detail.
Know Importance of EPF Claim Status (With Illustration)
Employees can withdraw the corpus upon retirement or before retirement under specified circumstances. If an employee has applied for EPF withdrawal, they can check the EPF claim status easily.
For example, Mr Arun is a retired employee of a private company. He has worked there for more than 20 years. During his tenure, the EPF contribution was deducted from Mr Arun’s salary. His employer also deposited the same amount to his EPF account. Now, as Mr Arun has retired, he has applied for withdrawal of funds from his EPF account. He wants to check whether the claim has been approved or not.
Let us understand how Mr Arun can check his EPF claim status.
Pre-Requisites
An employee must first be registered with the Employees' Provident Fund Organization (EPFO). This is an important requirement before the employee can check the claim status. Once the employee is registered, they can easily verify their EPF claim status using both online and offline methods.
Mr Arun should check whether he is registered for EPF withdrawals or not. If not, he should get himself registered with the EPFO first. He should also get his Mobile Number and Aadhaar Number linked with his Universal Account Number (UAN) allotted by the EPFO. Then, he can get all the updates about his employee provident account.
Checking EPF Claim Status Online
Employees place a request with the EPFO for withdrawal of the whole or part of the amount in their EPF account. The request must be made in the prescribed form.
They can check their claim status online using any of the following methods:
EPFO Portal or UAN Portal
Visit the official website of EPFO.
Select the ‘Our Services’ option and then click on the ‘For Employees’ option.
Click on the ‘Services’ section and select ‘Know your Claim Status’.
Enter your 12-digit Universal Account Number (UAN) and password along with the characters shown as CAPTCHA image and click on ‘Sign in’.
Enter details like the PF Office state and select the current PF Office from the dropdown menu.
Enter your Establishment Code.
Enter your Provident Fund account number.
Click ‘Submit’
Your EPF claim status is displayed on your device screen.
UMANG Portal
Download the application UMANG on your mobile phone.
Log in to the application and search for the ‘Employee Provident Fund Organization (EPFO)’ option.
Select ‘Employee Centric Services’ from the various options available.
Select the ‘Track claim’ option.
Enter your UAN on the new screen that opens, and click on ‘GET OTP’.
Once the OTP is received on your registered mobile number, enter the OTP and click on ‘Login’.
The following screen that appears will display all your details such as the claims made on the UAN, tracking ID, claim status, and date of the claim raised.
Sometimes, you may not be comfortable using the internet or mobile applications. Then you can also check the EPF claim status offline with the following methods:
SMS
The EPFO has a facility for sending alerts to members via SMS. Following are the steps to receive alerts via SMS:
Link your mobile number with the EPF account.
If it is already linked, you will receive an SMS alert from EPFO upon receipt of the withdrawal application. Another SMS is received on the successful transfer of funds to your bank account.
You can also check the claim status anytime by sending an SMS on 7738299899 from your registered mobile number. The SMS should contain the message - EPFOHO UAN LAN. Here:
UAN stands for Universal Account Number allotted to the member
LAN indicates the first 3 characters of the language in which you wish to read the message on the EPF claim status. For example, ENG is for the English language, HIN for the Hindi language, and MAR for the Marathi language. Currently, the EPFO supports 10 languages.
Missed Call
An employee can also know the EPF claim status through a missed call. The steps are as follows:
Give a missed call on the official EPFO phone number. The EPFO toll-free number is 011-22901406.
The call automatically disconnects after a ring or two.
The member receives a notification containing the details of their EPF claim status.
The EPF claim status will be provided only if the missed call is made from a registered mobile number.
Final Words
In Mr Arun’s case, he can check the EPF claim status online either by visiting the EPFO website or by downloading the UMANG application on his mobile. He can also use offline methods like sending an SMS or giving a missed call to the EPFO toll-free number from his registered mobile number.
Over the past few years, it has become convenient for employees to check their EPF claim status or any other information about their EPF account due to these services.
Do I need to visit the EPFO office to check my EPF claim status?
No. A visit to the EPFO office is not required. You can check your EPF claim status from the comfort of your home or office. You can check from any device – Android, Windows, or Apple.
Can I check the EPF claim status offline?
Yes. You can check the claim status offline using the SMS or missed call facility.
What are the information/documents required for checking the EPF claim status?
Following is the list of information/documents required to check your EPF claim status:
Details of the employer
Regional Office of employer’s EPF
Universal Account Number (UAN)
Active mobile number registered with EPFO
Aadhaar number linked with UAN
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