The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation has issued an important clarification over the rejection of transfer claims due to the overlap of service periods.
In a recent circular, the retirement fund body said that transfer claims of PF account holders can't be rejected due to overlap in their service periods. This move will eliminate the difficulties employees face in getting their transfer claims processed when there is an overlap in their service record.
"It has been observed that transfer claim requests are being rejected due to the issue of overlap in service periods by the regional offices. However, overlapping in services can occur due to genuine reasons and therefore, the same should not be considered to be a disqualification per se in effecting transfers," the EPFO said in a circular dated May 20.
The circular instructs the Transferor (Source) Office not to reject or return a transfer claim if there is an overlap of service. It added: "Only in cases where a genuine need is felt to clarify the overlapping of service, would the claims be processed after obtaining the requisite clarification."
A PF transfer claim is a request to move the existing EPF balance from one employer to another while changing jobs. An overlap happens when, on the same date, an employee appears to have worked for more than one employer.
This can happen due to errors, such as the PF record showing the last working day at a company and the joining date at another company as the same.
Now that the EPFO has explicitly recognised that an overlap of claims can happen due to "genuine reasons", employees can expect an easier experience while making a transfer claim.
The move is among the several attempts being made by the Labour Ministry to reform the EPFO. For example, now employees don't need to submit cheque leaves and bank-attested updated passbooks for filing claims. It is also true for partial withdrawals for specific cases, such as emergencies.
Further, EPFO's online services are expected to improve as its website is revamped by the end of June.
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