Employee Provident Fund (EPF) Scheme is the fund to help an employee for retirement. A contribution of 12% of the basic pay is made by an employee to the fund every month. The employer also contributes equal portion to the corpus. If an employee wants, he/she can withdraw the EPF amount during the course of employment.
The employee is required to provide the Universal Account Number (UAN) given by the EPF organisation during the withdrawal of the amount. There is no need for an employee to apply for EPF transfer if he/she changes jobs as the UAN is portable.
When an employee retires from employment the person can withdraw EPF. Similarly, if someone remains unemployed for a period of two months or more, the person can withdraw the PF amount.
Under some circumstance an employee can go for partial withdrawal of EPF and the same has been discussed below:
a) In case of marriage of self or son/daughter or brother/sister, the employee can withdraw up to 50% of employee's share of contribution to EPF after seven years of service
b) An employee can withdraw up to 50% of employee's share of contribution to EPF after seven years of service for education of either himself or his children after Class 10
c) In case of purchase of land/construction of a house, an employee can withdraw PF money after five years of his/her service.
d) For home loan repayment, an employee can withdraw up to a maximum of 90% of the EPF corpus after 10 years of service.
e) In case of renovation of house, someone can withdraw up to 12 times of the monthly wages after five years of service provided the property should be registered in the name of the employee or spouse or jointly.
f) Someone can withdraw up to 90% of the EPF along with interest a little before retirement after attaining 57 years of age.
Steps for EPF withdrawal:
The EPF amount can be withdrawn either by submission of a physical application or through online mode.
1. One can download the new composite claim (Aadhar)/ composite claim form (Non-Aadhar) from the EPFO website and submit to the respective jurisdictional EPFO office. An employee does not need attestation of the employer if he/she fills the new composite claim form (Aadhar). However, one needs attestation of the employer if he/she is filling up the new composite claim form (Non-aadhaar).
In case of partial withdrawal of EPF amount by an employee, self-certification is required for the subscribers.
2. To make the withdrawal process easier and hassle free, the EPFO has introduced the online facility.
Someone needs to have the active UAN with KYC mentioning Aadhaar, PAN and bank details along with the IFSC code and mobile number before applying for the EPFO withdrawal.
Visit the UAN portal https://unifiedportal-mem.epfindia.gov.in/memberinterface/ and login with your UAN and password and enter the captcha. Thereafter click the tab ‘Manage’ and select KYC to check whether your KYC details such as Aadhaar, PAN and bank details are correct and verified or not. Following this, go to the tab 'Online Services’ and select the option ‘Claim’ from the drop-down menu. The ‘Claim’ screen will display the member details, KYC details and other service details. Click on the tab ‘Proceed For Online Claim’ to submit your claim form. Select the claim i.e full EPF Settlement, EPF Part withdrawal (loan/advance) or pension withdrawal, under the tab ‘I Want To Apply For’.