The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has decided to increase the auto settlement of advanced claim (ASAC) ceiling from the present Rs 1 lakh by five times, sources told ANI. EPFO members can withdraw PF up to Rs 5 lakh through ASAC soon. This revision will enhance the ease of living for crores of members of EPFO.
PF withdrawal limit may be raised from Rs 1 Lakh to Rs 5 lakh
As per ANI sources, Sumita Dawra, Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, had approved the proposal to raise the limit from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh in the 113th meeting of the Executive Committee (EC) of Central Board of Trustees (CBT), held last week.
Ramesh Krishnamurthi, Central Provident Fund Commissioner, EPFO, attended the meeting, which was held in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir on March 28. The recommendation will now be sent to CBT for approval.
EPFO members can withdraw PF up to Rs 5 lakh through ASAC after the approval of CBT.
In April 2020, the auto mode of claim settlement was introduced for advance for illness. The EPFO raised the auto settlement of the advanced claim limit from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh in May 2024.
Auto mode settlement of advance claims for 3 more categories
The EPFO has also introduced auto-mode settlement of advance claims for three more categories: education, marriage, and housing.
Earlier, members could only withdraw their PF for illness/hospitalisation purposes.
Auto-mode claims processed within three days
With 95 percent of claims now being automated, the auto-mode claims are processed within three days. Any claim involving KYC, eligibility, and bank validation is automatically processed by IT systems for payment. As a result, the claim settlement periods are shortened from 10 days to within 3-4 days for such advances.
As of March 6, 2025, the EPFO has settled 2.16 crore auto-claims, a record high for the current fiscal year up from 89.52 lakh in 2023–2024. According to ANI sources the rejection of claims ratio has also decreased from 50% to 30% last year.
Auto-claim solution without human intervention
With the EPFO’s auto-claim solution, claims are handled automatically by an IT system without the need for human involvement.
The centralization of member databases under Centralized IT Enabled further streamlines the claim settlement procedure. Human intervention is eliminated as the entire auto-settlement process is driven by an IT system.
Validation formalities for withdrawing PF reduced from 27 to 18
According to ANI sources, the validation formalities for withdrawing PF have also been reduced from 27 to 18. It was decided in the meeting to bring it down to 6. Certain upfront validations have been developed which would guide members about the eligibility /admissibility of claims and ensure that they do not file ineligible claims.
Claims that systems cannot verify are not rejected or returned. They are further carried out for a second degree of review and approval.
Members to soon withdraw PF through UPI and ATM
The EPFO plans to launch a ground-breaking new PF withdrawal method via the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
Last week, Labour and Employment Secretary Sumita Dawra said that the ministry has approved NPCI’s recommendation, and members may withdraw PF through UPI and ATM by the end of May or June this year.
This may also be a good pilot for members of other schemes like the General Provident Fund (GPF) of Govt Employees of the Public Provident Fund (PPF) of Banks.