The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPF) has relaxed its requirement of mandatorily uploading an image of a validated bank passbook or cheque leaf in certain circumstances when verifying claims. EPFO's move is expected to streamline the settlement of claims filed online and reduce instances of rejection in cases where the image of the cheque leaf or attested bank passbook was not uploaded during online claims filing.
EPFO use other means of verification such as Online Verification of the Bank KYC by the concerned Bank or NPCI, and verification of your Bank KYC by your employer using a Digital Signature Certificate (DSC). Further, your bank account’s Aadhaar number can be validated by UIDAI.
EPFO on May 28, 2024, released a circular saying, “To facilitate the speedy settlement of claims filed online and to reduce the rejection of claims due to the reason of non-uploading of the image of cheque leaf or attested bank passbook while filing claims online, it has been decided with the approval of the CPFC to relax the requirement of mandatory uploading of the image of cheque leaf or attested bank passbook for certain eligible cases."
The relaxation is done "based on certain validations which include Online Verification of the Bank KYC by concerned Bank or NPCI, Verification of Bank KYC by the employer using DSC, Seeded Aadhaar Number verified by UIDAI among others,” the circular said.
EPFO added that in all such cases, the last part of the PDF of the claim will say, "The bank KYC has been online verified by the bank and has been digitally signed by the employer for this case among other validations and therefore, mandatory uploading of the image of cheque leaf or attested bank passbook is not required."
To make it easier for officers dealing with claims to identify ones that qualify for this relaxation, such claims would be soon colour-coded so that they are not returned for non-uploading of bank passbooks or cheque leaf pictures.
The EPFO norms as per the FAQ page say, "A cancelled original cheque bearing the name of the member, his bank account number IFSC code of the bank should be printed on the cheque itself. In case, the member’s bank account is without a ‘cheque book’ facility, then a copy of the first page of the passbook duly attested by the bank manager may be enclosed with the claim form.
You must have a valid Universal Account Number (UAN) and be a registered member. Your Aadhaar number, bank account number, and other Know Your Customer (KYC) information must be seeded and validated in your UAN account.
Login to the member interface using UAN credentials and password and navigate to the claims section.
Verify that the prefilled KYC details are accurate and that service eligibility conditions as mentioned against UAN are complete.
Select the relevant claim.
Where necessary, a cancelled check an attested copy of a bank passbook or any other documents as specified can be submitted for online verifications.
Complete the online claim submission by verifying the OTP received against the mobile registered with UIDAI. keep a copy of the filed claim for future reference.
