Auto Settlement Of PF Withdrawal Online: To enhance the Ease of Living for its 7.5 crore members, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has decided to increase the auto settlement of advance claim (ASAC) limit fivefold, from the current Rs 1 lakh, sources told ANI.
According to sources, Sumita Dawra, Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, approved the proposal to raise the limit from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh during the 113th meeting of the Executive Committee (EC) of the Central Board of Trustees (CBT), held last week.
This revision aims to further improve the ease of living for crores of EPFO members. The meeting took place in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, on March 28 and was attended by Ramesh Krishnamurthi, Central Provident Fund Commissioner, EPFO. The recommendation will now be sent for CBT approval. Once approved, EPFO members will be able to withdraw up to ₹5 lakh through ASAC.
The auto mode of claim settlement was introduced in April 2020 for advance withdrawals related to illness. In May 2024, EPFO increased the auto-settlement limit from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh. Additionally, auto-mode settlement has been introduced for three more categories: education, marriage, and housing.
Previously, members could only withdraw PF for illness or hospitalization. The auto-mode claims are now processed within three days, with 95 per cent of claims being automated. EPFO achieved a record high of 2.16 crore auto-claim settlements as of March 6, 2025, during the current financial year, up from 89.52 lakh in 2023-24.
According to sources, the claim rejection ratio has also dropped to 30 per cent from 50 per cent last year. EPFO has implemented an auto-claim system, where claims are processed automatically by IT tools without human intervention.
Adding further, the number of validation formalities for PF withdrawals has been reduced from 27 to 18, with a decision made in the meeting to bring it down further to six. New upfront validations have been introduced to guide members on eligibility and admissibility, ensuring that ineligible claims are not filed.
The claim settlement process is being further simplified through the centralization of member databases under a Centralized IT System. The entire auto-settlement process is IT-driven, eliminating human intervention.
Any claim with proper KYC, eligibility verification, and bank validation is automatically processed for payment by the IT system. As a result, the claim settlement period has been significantly reduced from 10 days to just 3-4 days for such advances.
Claims that do not pass system validation are not immediately rejected; instead, they undergo a second level of scrutiny and approval. In a groundbreaking move for India’s workforce, EPFO is set to introduce a new system for PF withdrawals through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
Last week, Labour and Employment Secretary Sumita Dawra announced that the ministry has approved NPCI’s recommendation, and members may be able to withdraw PF through UPI and ATMs by the end of May or June this year.
This system may also serve as a pilot project for other schemes, such as the General Provident Fund (GPF) for government employees and the Public Provident Fund (PPF) in banks.
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