The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has introduced Universal Account Number (UAN) allotment and activation using face authentication in an attempt to revive the low rate of UAN activation.
Currently, UANs are mainly generated by employers by submitting data of employees (members) to EPFO. Though this data is validated using Aadhaar data, many errors were made in other fields, such as father's name or mobile number, Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in a briefing on Tuesday.
Further, UAN activation through Aadhaar OTP validation was a separate process to be completed by the member, causing confusion.
Now employees and employers can directly generate UAN using Aadhaar Face Authentication Technology using the Umang Mobile App.
In the financial year 2024-25, as many as 1.26 crore UANs were allotted by EPFO; however, only 44.68 lakh UANs, or about 35.3%, were activated by the members.
To stem this, direct face authentication has been brought in. Members who already have a UAN but have not yet activated it can also activate their UAN through the UMANG App.
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