EPFO-Aadhaar link brings convenience to account holders

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The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has made it mandatory to link EPF with the Aadhaar number. This is a welcome move as the linkage helps you open, maintain as well as exit your EPF account. The seeding of Aadhaar, which experts say is one of the most efficient ways to identify a person for online transactions, is a right move towards one person one EPF account. UAN or Unique Account Number, which was launched in 2014, is to ensure that every individual has only one account number helping in portability while moving from one employer to another.

The last date for the EPF Aadhaar link was August 31, 2021, which got an extension from the earlier deadline of 30 May 2021. EPFO has also directed employers to verify the UAN of all account holders. If the accounts are not verified then employers will not be able to contribute to one’s PF account.

Online claim service by EPFO has become quite popular. Now employees are able to transfer their funds from one employer to another at the click of a button. The move has helped millions in taking charge of their PF accounts, which earlier offered no transparency to account holders. The process of transfer and withdrawing funds has become seamless with a quick turnaround time.

Offline tracking of PF accounts was extremely tedious. From sending the documents by post to problems in identifying the right EPFO office – the problems were just too many. Moreover, one had to contend with multiple account numbers corresponding to each change of employment. Not only transferring, mere updating the account was not easy in the offline world. Many of the issues have been resolved through the online facility. The seeding of Aadhaar has made the systems robust and brought more transparency in PF accounts.

EPFO should constantly strive to bring in more changes so that unclaimed money lying with EPFO also comes down. The easy processes and quick turnaround times through linkage of Aadhaar is the step in the right direction.