Like Government employees, there were no allowances and schemes were provided by the Government or the private employers to their employees. EPF, i.e. Employment Provident Fund is created with an intention to help private sector employees to save a fraction of their monthly salary.
EPF – Employee Provident Fund (Complete Guide)
And this savings will be helpful for the employees in the event of employee’s termination or if the employee is no longer fit to work or after their retirement. About 95% employees understand the importance of EPF and enrolling themselves to EPF.
In this article, we are going to discuss in more detail about EPF:
1) What Does an EPF Form Contains:
- Gender
- Registered Email Address.
- Educational Information
- Marital Status (Single or Married).
- Date of Birth
- Husband’s/Father’s Name.
- Account No.
- Organization No.
- Organization or Company Address.
- Name of the Company
- Previous Employment Details.
- Passport Number
Apart from these, you also need to provide the KYC details including:
- Driving License
- Voter’s ID
- And Bank Account Number.
Also, the employer needs to provide the declaration regarding the information provided by the employee:
- Joining Date of the Employee.
- PF ID Number
- UAN Number of the Employee.
2) Contribution by Employer and Employee
The contribution for EPF account should be made on the basis 12% of basic pay. For instance, if the monthly salary is Rs 20,000, the contribution from employee towards his or her EPF would be Rs 2,600/month i.e. 12% of basic pay and the same amount should be contributed by the employer too.
3) Withdrawals from the EPF Account
According to the EPF settlement act, for claiming the final settlement, employee needs to attain the age of 55 years. The total EPF amount includes the employee’s contribution, employer’s contribution along with the interest.
The rule also states that employers can also withdraw the full PF balance if he is off or leave from the employment for 60 days or more.
To withdraw money from EPF account, employees can now make use of UAN based Form 19. This facility is available to all those employers whose UAN is activated and verified with KYC details including Aadhar card number, and bank account number.
4) UAN – What It Is?
UAN stands for Universal Account Number which allotted specifically to EPF subscribers. It has been made compulsory for all employees and will assist in maintaining the EPF account and transfer/withdrawals will become much simple than ever before.
5) Benefits of Having EPF Subscription
Employees’ Provident Fund Advances
Monthly contribution to EPF doesn’t mean that you need to avail the benefits only after your retirement. EPF also allows the employees to enjoy full access to the amount by means of advances not as loans. Also, such a kind of advances also allowed only for valuable purposes which includes: buying a house, repaying home loan, emergency medical needs, marriage of children etc. Also, the advance amount will be sanctioned based on the number of years of service, reason for the loan etc. The main advantage of taking this kind of advance is – there is NO INTEREST!
6) How to Submit your EPF Claim Online?
Here are the few things you need to consider before submitting your EPF claim.
- Activate your Universal Account Number (UAN).
- Make sure that you are using the registered mobile number.
- Enter the Aadhar card details.
- Enter the valid bank account number and double check it. This is where the claimed amount will be sanctioned.
- If you have not been the subscriber of EPF account for more than 5 years, then you need to enter the PAN Card number too.
Special Notes:
The online claim process isn’t accessible to the individuals who don’t have Aadhaar. The non-Aadhaar card holder’s needs to provide the details like DOB, personal details and bank account details etc. And also, they need to submit their signature and it must be authorized by your employer.
These are the things you need to aware about the EPF. If you like this article, sharing this with your friends and other colleagues would be better. And also, if you have any suggestions or queries related to this, feel free to write it on the comment section below. We will resolve your doubts soon!
EPF is the seed you sow which you will cultivate the benefits later! 🙂