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Employee Provident Fund (EPF) members can now instant loan up to Rs 1 lakh as advance for medical emergency. No collateral or guarantee is required for this purpose.

On June 1, EPFO issued a circular, which stated that medical advance is granted for the treatment of any life-threatening diseases including Covid-19.

Last week, EPFO had allowed withdrawal of money from the account due to medical emergency, but the amount was based on estimation of medical expenses or reimbursement of medical bills.

But for this amount, the employee need not submit any bill or cost projection. Only application will suffice.

Process

The EPFO circular clearly stated that this medical advance is in case of emergency hospitalisation on account of serious life-threatening diseases including corona virus pandemic. Often it becomes important that the patient is immediately admitted to hospital with the sole purpose of saving his/her life. In that haste, it is not possible for the patient’s relatives to get an estimate from the hospital.

To facilitate hospitalisation, the amount would be credited within an hour after receiving the application from the member or from any other member of the family of the person concerned.

This is completely different from the Covid advances that the EPFO board approved last month. In such a scenario one can get 75% of his total corpus but it is non-refundable in nature.

To claim this Rs 1 lakh advance, the person should be admitted in any government or central government health scheme empanelled hospital.

Just a simple application containing the relevant details such as bed number, prescriptions etc of the patient should be sent to the authorities. The letter must mention that estimate is not known, and therefore, a medical advance should be given.

EPFO officials also added that this advance amount may go up to Rs 3 lakh subject to board approval.

Second Covid advance

Last month, EPFO board members gave a nod to take the second advance amid the pandemic.

Those who were taking advances during the first wave are now eligible for a second advance too. The advance amount is maximum up to 75% of the whole corpus of the EPF account.

Under this provision, non-refundable withdrawal to the extent of the basic wages and dearness allowances for three months or up to 75% of the amount standing to member’s credit in the EPF account, whichever is less, is provided. Members can apply for a lesser amount also.

“The Covid-19 advance has been a great help to the EPF members, especially for those having monthly wages of less than Rs 15,000. Till date, EPFO has settled more than 76.31 lakh Covid-19 advance claims, thereby disbursing a total of Rs 18,698 crore,” the ministry of labour and employment said.