Question : Settlement of EPF Cases

(a)the total number of cases of Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) settled by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation during each of the last three years and the current year;
(b)the total number of cases of EPF pending for settlement during the said period, State/UT-wise;
(c)whether any norms have been prescribed for the processing of claims, if so, the details thereof along with the rate of settlement;
(d)whether the Government proposes to reduce the period of settlement of claims and if so, the details thereof; and
(e)the other steps taken/being taken by the Government for speedy disposal of the pending claims?

MINISTER OF STATE (IC) FOR LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT
(SHRI SANTOSH KUMAR GANGWAR)

(a): The details of the total number of cases of Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) settled by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) are as follows:
Year Total no. of cases settled
2016-17 70,10,928
2017-18 85,72,133
2018-19 1,15,21,930
2019-20 (till 29.02.2020) 1,50,88,002


Contd..2/-
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(b) & (c): As per paragraph 72 (7) of the Employees’ Provident Funds Scheme, 1952 the claims complete in all respects submitted along with the requisite documents shall be settled and benefit amount paid to the beneficiaries within 20 days from the date of its receipt by the Commissioner. Therefore, at any point of time, it would not be possible to have no pendency at all for settlement of claims since receipt of the claims is an ongoing process. At present, the organization has been able to settle nearly two-third of EPF claims within 10 days of its receipt.
(d) & (e): Improvement in service delivery is an on-going process. EPFO has taken many steps for speedy disposal of the claims. Some of the important steps taken in this regard are providing option for submission of claim forms through online mode, simplification of process of settlement by doing away with the certain manual processes, bringing down the number of levels for approval of claims from three to two and the making payments to subscribers through National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT).

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