The EPFO, or Employees’ Provident Fund Organization, is renowned for its efforts to stay up to date with emerging developments. The group wants to make things easier for subscribers and give them better service. This time, EPFO has disclosed a big modification to its guidelines for handling claims.
EPFO will now permit physical claims to be handled without seeding Aadhaar in some situations since field offices are finding it difficult to update Aadhaar data following the death of a member.
According to this new regulation, which was announced in a circular dated May 17, 2024, physical claims may be handled without Aadhaar, but only with the officer in charge’s (OIC) consent.
The claim must be approved by the OIC via an e-office file that fully records the verification procedures used to verify the claimants’ authenticity and the identification of the deceased member.
When Are You Going to Use This Facility?
This modification is only applicable in cases when member information is valid in the Universal Account Number (UAN) but inaccurate or lacking in the Aadhaar database.
When Aadhaar details are accurate but UAN details aren’t, field offices need to abide by the rules outlined in JD SOP version-2, dated March 26, 2024, Paragraphs 6.9 and 6.10. According to the guidelines in the circular dated September 24, 2020, this entails upgrading the UAN data and seeding and validating Aadhaar,” the EPFO circular clarified.
Steps To Use The New Process
After reviewing the information, you could be wondering how to make use of the facility. Here is how the new procedure operates, then.
- In death circumstances, physical claims may be made temporarily without requiring Aadhaar seeding.
- The Officer in Charge (OIC) must provide approval via an e-office file.
- Extensive verification is required to validate the identity of the deceased member and the veracity of the claims.
- It is necessary to take due diligence steps, as instructed by the OIC, to stop fraudulent withdrawals.
