EPFO members can self-correct personal details without employers’ intervention

“No supporting document is required in such cases,” Mandaviya said. If the UAN was issued prior to October 1, 2017, the employer can correct details of the employee without the EPFO’s approval. Requirement of supporting documents has also been simplified for such cases.

Only where UAN is not linked with Aadhaar, any correction would have to be submitted physically to the employer and after verification forwarded to EPFO for approval, Mandaviya said.

UAN registration for EPFO is done by the employers for the employees at the time of joining. For many employees, mistakes were committed by employers in recording father/spouse name, marital status, nationality and service details during the registration process or later.

In order to correct these errors, the employee had to make a request online with supporting documents. The request was verified by the employer and then forwarded to EPFO for approval. This process was called the joint declaration.

In FY25, out of the 8 lakh requests that were forwarded to EPFO by employers, only 40 per cent were sent within 5 days, 47 per cent were sent after 10 days and the average time taken by employer was 28 days. The simplification of the updation process would provide relief to employees in 45 per cent of cases by immediate correction through Aadhaar OTP verification and in the balance 50 per cent of cases through the employer itself, the Ministry said.

If any member who can self-approve has already filed his request which is pending with the employer, the member can delete the already filed request and self-approve as per simplified process.

This will benefit nearly 3.9 lakh cases pending with employers as on date, the Ministry said.

Transfer claims

Another segment of the new facility introduced by the EPFO is about transfer claims, that is, requests for transfer of EPF accounts at the time of switching jobs. EPFO members with e-KYC accounts, that is, Aadhaar-seeded accounts, can now file their EPF transfer claims online with Aadhaar OTP (one time password) directly without any need for intervention of the employer. This is expected to reduce the turnaround time for transfer claims under EPFO since no approval would be required by the employers, Mandaviya said.

Around 27 per cent of grievances filed by EPFO members are related to member profile/ KYC issues. These are expected to see a significant drop after the rollout of the facility, the Labour and Employment Ministry said, adding that large employers having a huge workload of such requests will benefit from the new facility.

Considering the number of such claims filed were 1.3 crore during FY25, more than 94 per cent claims (1.2 crore) will instantly reach EPFO, the Ministry said.

If any member has already filed his transfer claim which is pending with the employer, the member can delete the already-filed request and submit the claim directly with EPFO.

The simplification is also expected to reduce the member grievances considerably and the subsequent rejections. At present, 17 per cent of the total grievances pertain to transfer-related issues under the EPFO.

Large employers who have a substantial workload of approving such cases are expected to benefit from this new facility. The internal processes of EPFO are also being simplified for transfer claim processing within this month which will further smoothen this process, Mandaviya said.

At present, any online request for transfer of PF account in case of any change of job has to be verified by the employer before submitting to EPFO. In this process, on an average, 12 to 13 days are taken by employers before the claim reaches EPFO for verifying transfers.

During the last nine months, almost 20 lakh claims remained pending with employers for more than 15 days. Mandaviya also said that the Ministry is taking many initiatives to improve delivery of services by the EPFO and aiming to bring those at par with the banking system.