Employee’s Provident Fund is one of the major social security bodies under the Indian Government, Labour & Employment Ministry and is responsible for the management and regulation of the Indian provident fund. Note that EPF is just one of the types of employer contribution. In actuality, the provident fund contribution is of 3 types. While conducting your EPFO establishment search too, you may get these categories. Read on here to know the categories.
Provident contribution
Employer’s contribution can be divided into the following categories –
- Employees’ deposit link insurance scheme or EDLIS
- Employees’ pension scheme or EPS
- Employees’ provident fund or EPF
It is necessary for the employer and employee to make the EPF contribution. Each must contribute 12 per cent of the basic salary and employee’s dearness allowance to the EPF. Below listed are the details linked with employer and employees’ contributions to EPF.
Employer’s contribution to EPF – Employer even contributes 12 per cent of the employee’s income to EPF.
Employee’s contribution to EPF – 12 per cent of the employee’s salary gets deducted by the employer on monthly basis for the contribution to EPF. The whole contribution goes to the EPF account.
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What are the benefits of opting for an EPF account?
Listed below are the crucial benefits of opting for an EPF scheme –
- It assists you to save money over the long term
- There is zero need to make a lump sum or a single investment. Monthly deductions take place from your income, which assists in saving a massive amount over the long term.
- It can assist you as an employee financially if you witness any emergency.
- It assists in saving good money for your retirement time, which can allow you to maintain a stable financial life later during your golden days.
What’s the rate of interest offered by EPF?
Presently, the rate of interest offered by the provident fund is 8.10 per cent p.a. You can easily compute the interest constituent accumulated in your EPF towards the end of your financial year. This specific amount gets included in your employee and employer contributions towards the year-end.
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What are the eligibility criteria for EPF?
The eligibility parameter to join the EPF scheme is mentioned below –
- It is necessary for salaried individuals with an income of below Rs 15,000 per month to have an EPF account.
- As per the law, it is necessary for the organizations to register for the EPF scheme if it has over 20 employees working in its company.
- Organizations below 20 employees may even join the EPF scheme voluntarily. This scheme is known as a voluntary provident fund.
- Employees earning over Rs 15,000 may register for the EPF account. However, for this, they must get the approval from Assistant provident fund commissioner.
- EPF provision is for the entire country except for the state of Jammu and Kashmir in India.
How can you check your EPF balance?
To check your EPF balance, you must know your EPFO establishment login or have the EPF login details. Without your EPF details, it may be difficult for you to access your EPF account. There are 4 major ways to check your EPF balance. These include –
- By using the EPFO platform – The procedure of checking the balance of your employee provident fund using the EPFO member platform is simple. You must do the EPF login through the UAN as well as the passcode. Post logging in, you can find out your EPF balance mentioned under the member ID section.
- Through the UMANG application – You can easily download the UMANG application from the play store to find out your EPF balance. Note that the full form of UMANG app is Unified Mobile Application for the New Age Governance. Once you log in to your UMANG app, you will find your balance on the homepage. You may even raise as well as track your claims or transactions using the UMANG app.
- Through missed call service – Through the missed call service even you can check your EPF account balance. Note that you must give a missed call to 011 2290 1406 to know your EPF account balance. The missed call must be done from the phone number registered with the EPFO.
- Through the SMS service facility – In case your UAN is activated, you easily can send out an SMS to the number 7738 299 899 to get an update about your EPF account balance.
What are the different kinds of EPF forms?
The below table endows the list of distinct EPF forms as well as their uses –
| Form type | Form use |
| Form 31 | Also called the provident fund advance form, it is used for withdrawals, filing for loans as well as advances from your EPF account. |
| Form 10 D | This form is for availing monthly pension. |
| Form 10 C | The form is used for claiming benefits as per EPF. You can also use this form to withdraw funds contributed by your employer towards EPS. |
| Form 13 | The form can be used for transferring your provident fund amount from the last job to your present one. It assists in keeping all your provident fund money under a single account. |
| Form 19 | With this form, you can claim the final settlement of the EPF account. |
| Form 20 | With this form, your family member can withdraw your provident fund amount if you pass away. |
| Form 51 F | With this form, the nominee can claim the benefits of employee deposit insurance. |
How to log in to your EPFO portal?
The initial step to log into your EPFO platform is to activate your UAN. It can be done through the EPFO platform. After you log in using your UAN, the listed activities must be done. These include –
- You can easily download your UAN card as well as your passbook.
- Check your PF linking status.
- View your member ID
- View your PF transfer claim status
- Edit your personal information on your EPFO platform
- Update your KYC info
You as an employee of a company can log in to your EPF member platform through your UAN and passcode. You may even sign into the site using your permanent login ID as well as your passcode.
