Retirement planning should be a top priority for any working professional. One of the important retirement schemes in India is the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) scheme. Both the employer and the employee contribute an equal amount to the PF account to build a retirement corpus for the employee.
The EPF contributions earn interest and can be withdrawn under certain conditions before retirement. The EPF interest rate has currently been fixed at 8.25%. The EPF scheme is managed by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
When it comes to PF, for a long time, one of the major concerns for any employee switching jobs has been transferring their PF account to the new organisation. This had to be done by making an online transfer claim through one's present or former employer.
However, in a circular issued in January 2015, the EPFO has done away with this requirement in certain cases. In such situations, the transfer of the PF account will happen automatically if the Universal Account Number (UAN) is linked with the Aadhaar number. As per the circular, no separate transfer claim will be required in the following situations:
Transfers between Member IDs linked with the same UAN, where the UAN was allotted on or after Oct. 1, 2017.
Transfers between Member IDs linked with different UANs, where UANs were allotted on or after Oct. 1, 2017.
Transfers between Member IDs linked with the same UAN, where the UAN was allotted before Oct. 1, 2017. In this case, the name, date of birth, and gender must be identical across the Member IDs.
Transfers between Member IDs linked with different UANs, where at least one UAN was allotted before Oct. 1, 2017. Here, the circular also states that name, date of birth and gender must be identical across the Member IDs.
In such a case, the most important thing is to ensure the linking of UAN with the EPF subscriber's Aadhaar. This will lead to the transfer of the PF account on changing jobs without having to apply via an employer.
Steps To Link UAN With Aadhaar
1. Visit the EPFO portal and log in with your credentials. You will need to enter your UAN, password and captcha to log in.
2. Under the “Manage” section, click on “KYC”.
3. Click on “Aadhaar” and input your Aadhaar number and name.
4. Click on “Save”.
5. Once you save the Aadhaar details, the information will be validated with the information from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
6. After the KYC verification, the Aadhaar will be linked with the UAN.
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