EPFO Account: No More Delays To Correct Details — Here's What Changed

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation, in a move to push for a faster system, is set to simplify key processes for its subscribers. More than 70 million subscribers will be able to cut down time-consuming approvals and human interventions. The revised procedure will allow members whose Universal Account Number has already been validated through Aadhaar to update their profile, according to a circular.

Details like name, date of birth, gender, nationality, father or mother’s name, marital status, spouse name, date of joining and date of leaving can be changed without the requirement of uploading any document. 

"Almost 45% of the change requests can be self-approved by the member without employer’s verification or approval at EPFO. On an average, this will eliminate a delay of nearly 28 days taken by employer to approve Joint Declarations, according to the circular.

Here, the request for change or correction of EPF Account holders not having a full e-KYC, shall get approved at employer level in approximately another 50% of the cases, without requirement for any approval at EPFO. To correct errors in details like name, marital status and service details during the registration process or after, an employee had to make a request online with supporting documents.

The request would then have to be verified by the employer and then forwarded to EPFO for approval, which is a process called joint declaration.

This change is a move to facilitate the immediate clearing of the member’s requests, duly ensuring data consistency and minimising the risk of errors. The revision is set to immediately benefit around 3.9 lakh members, whose requests are pending at various stages. If any member who can self-approve has already filed his request, which is pending with employer, the member can delete the application filed and self-approve as per the simplified process. 

Something to note here is that if the UAN was issued prior to Oct. 1, 2017, corrections can to be made by the employer directly, without EPFO’s approval. The requirement of supporting document has also been simplified for such cases, the report said.

Nearly 27% of grievances filed by the members relate to member profile or KYC issues, which are expected to significantly reduce now, with the self-correction facility. The recent changes in the system have been aimed toward bringing about a sharp reduction in complaints and a redressal system with a quick turn around time.