Good news for government employees! The Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) has announced a significant change.
The limit for the Auto Settlement Advance Claim (ASAC) has been increased from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. This decision is expected to benefit EPFO members, allowing them to claim a higher advance from their Provident Fund.
Approval Process and Next Steps
The proposal to increase the ASAC limit was approved by Sumita Doura, the Secretary of the Ministry of Labor and Employment, during the 113th Executive Committee (EC) meeting of the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) held on March 28 in Srinagar.
EPFO’s Central Provident Fund Commissioner, Ramesh Krishnamurthy, also attended the meeting.
The recommendation will now be sent to the CBT for final approval. Once approved, EPFO members will be able to claim advances up to Rs 5 lakh.
How Did EPFO Auto Claim Start?
In April 2020, EPFO introduced an auto-claim facility that allowed members to withdraw up to Rs 50,000 in case of illness. This limit was increased to Rs 1 lakh in May 2024.
Initially, this facility was available only for illness and hospitalization cases. However, the scope has now been expanded to include three new categories: education, marriage, and home purchase.
Drop in EPFO Claim Rejections
EPFO has made significant progress in reducing claim rejections. Last year, up to 50% of claims were rejected, but now this has dropped to 30%.
The process has been fully digitized, and claims are now processed automatically by the IT system without human intervention.
Changes in PF Withdrawal Rules
The process of withdrawing PF has also become easier. The validation requirements have been reduced from 27% to 18%, with plans to cut it further by 6%.
The government is working on centralizing and digitizing the EPFO member database. Once KYC, eligibility,
and bank verification are complete, the claim will be processed automatically. What once took up to 10 days to process will now take just 3-4 days.
