Are you a Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) member? If so, a new feature has been introduced for you. All employees who are EPFO members can now change their details, such as name and date of birth, online without requiring verification from their company.
Members with e-KYC PF accounts can also submit a request to transfer their EPF account to a new employer using Aadhaar OTP without needing approval from their current company.
Union Minister for Labour and Employment has noted that 27% of the requests received by EPFO from members are related to profile or KYC issues. He stated that these new features will significantly reduce the number of requests EPFO receives.
EPFO members can freely change their personal information without company involvement. They can visit the EPFO portal to update their name, date of birth, gender, nationality, parents’ names, marital status, spouse’s name, date of joining the job, date of leaving the job, and more.
Previously, many companies made errors when registering members’ details on the EPFO portal. As a result, EPFO members had to attach relevant documents and submit applications to their companies to correct these mistakes.
The companies would then review these applications and forward them to the EPFO department. This issue will now be resolved, as only the member with a PF account can make these corrections directly.
Who Can Use the New Feature?
This new feature is available exclusively to EPFO members who were issued a Universal Account Number (UAN) after October 1, 2017. They can change their details without needing to submit any documents or certificates.
For members who received their UAN before October 1, 2017, the company can update their personal information directly on the EPFO portal. The requirements for certificates in this process have been simplified significantly.
The company can change the information if an EPFO member’s UAN is not linked to their Aadhaar card. After that, the updated details will be sent to EPFO for review.
Employee Requests to Companies and EPFO Grievances Due to Delays
In the financial year 2024-25, EPFO received over 800,000 requests from employees applying to their companies for various amendments.
However, many employees did not receive adequate responses, leading them to escalate their requests to EPFO. Notably, about 47% of individuals reached out to EPFO because they had not received a response even after 10 days of applying to their company.
Another 40% submitted requests to EPFO within five days of their initial applications. This highlights the poor responsiveness of companies regarding employee applications and provident fund issues.
The new features aim to eliminate such delays for employees. Companies can promptly update employees’ PF details using Aadhaar OTP.
As of January 18, nearly 390,000 applications related to employees were still pending with companies across the country.
The central government is taking significant steps toward reforming the EPFO system to make it more accountable, similar to the banking sector.