From July 1, 2013, employee providend fund (EPF) account holders will be able to withdraw or transfer their EPF accounts from one employer to another employer online.
EPFO has said that they are working on setting up a central clearance house which will be operational from July 1, 2013.
One of the major problems faced by employees is to transfer their EPF accounts from one company to another when they change their jobs or to withdraw their EPF accounts after leaving their job, which takes years & months, without them having any transparency in the system and process. They are frustrated, lost and have no idea where to ask for their EPF status and to whom . Because of this delay, a lot of people just let things go and the matter drags for years and years
Permanent EPF account number..
EPFO has earlier said that they are working on the permanent EPF account number where a employee once allotted a EPF account number will be able to use the same Employee provident fund number when he / she moves to another employer.
The new employer will deposit the provident fund money in the same permanent account number. This will solve a lot of issues, but this would be possible only after 1 to 2 years , the first focus is on introducing a online withdrawal or transfer service.
Once you apply for withdrawal or / transfer, the verification of all the details from employer will be done by EPFO. All you would have to do is just initiate the transfer or / withdrawal request online.
After that EPFO department will take charge & do their part of work by contacting the employer. Here is how the transfer would work The member makes his transfer application at his new or / old office or directly to the EPFO through an online application.
The process is then taken over by the EPFO, which gets data verification from both offices & gets the transfer done immediately.
Now, EPFO would do the work of getting details from both old and new offices where transfer is involved, says EPFO Commissioner Mr.Anil Swarup.
This will help about 5 Crore Employee provident fund account holders, lot of paper work will be saved & surely the harassment will reduce.
.At this moment , a lot of withdrawal’s happen because employees know that its more easier & do not want to take chance for future issues due to the complex process. Hence this move will help a lot to EPFO department in retaining employees with their EPF’s .
While the EPFO has said that this will be operational from July 1, 2013 , still there might be delays from their end . If you can really afford to wait and want to try out this online system, then wait for 3 months and then give this a shot, else follow the usual process at this moment.
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