Ministry of Labour & Employment
EPFO Simplifies Claim Settlement Process; Two
Major Reforms Undertaken to Enhance Ease of
Living for EPF Members and Ease of Doing
Business for Employers
Removal of Requirement to Upload Image of Cheque Leaf /
Attested Bank Passbook to Benefit Over 7.7 Crore Members of
EPFO
Removal of Employer Approval Requirement for Seeding Bank
Account Details with UAN to Immediately Benefit Nearly 15 Lakh
Members with Pending Approvals
Posted On: 03 APR 2025 1:41PM by PIB Delhi
In yet another step towards enhancing the Ease of Living for EPF members and Ease of Doing Business for
employers, Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has introduced two key simplifications in its
claim settlement process. These measures will significantly streamline the process of claim settlement and
reduce grievances related to claim rejections.
Under the leadership of PM Shri @narendramodi ji, EPFO continues its reform
journey!
Two major reforms have been introduced to make the claim settlement process
simpler, faster, and hassle-free for crores of EPF members & employers:
No need to upload image of cheque leaf/… pic.twitter.com/YScWOkw0gn
— Dr Mansukh Mandaviya (@mansukhmandviya) April 3, 2025
1. Removal of Requirement to Upload Image of Cheque Leaf / Attested Bank Passbook
EPFO has completely dispensed with the requirement of uploading an image of a cheque leaf or attested
bank passbook while filing online claims. This requirement was initially relaxed on a pilot basis for certain
KYC-updated members. Since its launch on 28th May, 2024, the move has already benefited 1.7 crore EPF
members.
Following the successful pilot, EPFO has now extended this relaxation to all members. As the bank account
holder’s name is already verified with the EPF member’s details at the time of bank account seeding with
the Universal Account Number (UAN), this additional documentation is no longer necessary.
By removing this requirement, EPFO is set to immediately benefit around 6 crore members, eliminating
claim rejections due to poor-quality/unreadable uploads and reducing associated grievances.
2. Removal of Requirement of Employer Approval for Seeding Bank Account Details with Universal
Account Number (UAN)
To streamline the process of seeding bank accounts with UAN, EPFO has now removed the requirement of
employer approval after bank verification.
Currently, every member is required to seed his/her Bank Account with UAN in order to get their PF
withdrawals seamlessly credited to such account. During the F.Y. 2024-25, 1.3 crore members have
submitted their requests for seeding their Bank Accounts and the requests after due matching with the
respective Bank/NPCI are to be approved by the Employer through DSC/E-Sign.
It is seen that around 36,000 requests for seeding of bank account are being raised by the members on a
daily basis and the banks take an average of 3 days to complete the verification. However, after the bank
verification, the average time taken by the Employer to approve the process is about 13 days resulting in
piling up of workload at the level of the Employer and consequent delay in the seeding of Bank Account for
the Member. Further, this approval step is not adding any value to the verification process.
Out of 7.74 crore members who are presently contributing each month, already 4.83 crore members have
seeded their Bank Accounts in UAN with 14.95 Lakh approvals are pending at the level of the Employers.
Accordingly, with a view to facilitate ‘Ease of Doing Business’ to the Employers and ‘Ease of Living’ to
the Members, the role of Employer to approve the verification of bank account has now been dispensed
with in the seeding process of the member’s Bank Account. This will immediately benefit over 14.95 lakh
members whose approvals are pending with the Employers.
The above simplified process will also facilitate those members who want to change their already seeded
Bank Account by entering their new Bank Account no. along with the IFSC code duly authenticated
through Aadhaar OTP.
The members who are yet to seed their Bank Account or change their seeded Bank Account can take
advantage of the above simplified process to get their Bank Account seeded at the earliest.
*****
Himanshu Pathak
(Release ID: 2118168) Visitor Counter : 2774
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