Don’t depend on agents for PF services, EPFO tells members

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has asked its subscribers to not depend on private agents for services related to their PF accounts. 
| Photo Credit: Supreet Sapkal

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has asked its subscribers to not depend on private agents for services related to their PF accounts. The EPFO said in a release that it had observed that several cybercafe operators and fintech companies were charging EPFO members large sums of money for services that were officially free. “In many cases, these operators are simply using the EPFO’s online grievance portal, something any member can do on their own, free of cost, from the comfort of their homes,” the EPFO said, cautioning the subscribers against visiting or engaging with third-party companies or agents for EPFO-related services.

The EPFO warned that such actions may expose members’ financial data to third party entities. “These external entities are not authorised by the EPFO and may charge unnecessary fees or compromise the security of personal information of members,” the provident fund authority said. The EPFO added in its statement that it had taken a series of reforms to make services faster, transparent and user-friendly for all its stakeholders. “These initiatives are part of EPFO’s commitment to deliver hassle-free, secure and efficient services to all its stakeholders,” it said.

Profile correction

“The online facility provided for member profile correction has been simplified using Aadhaar authentication. The dependency on employer and EPFO for member profile correction has been done away with, in most of the cases. The online de-linking facility has enabled members to delink wrong member ID from their UAN and thus has resulted in reduction of grievances,” the EPFO claimed, adding that the requirement of uploading of the image of cheque leaf/attested bank passbook had been removed for speedy settlement of claims filed online and to reduce the rejection of claims.

The release said the EPFO had a robust grievance monitoring and redress system wherein the member grievances were registered on CPGRAMS or EPFiGMS portals and were monitored till their resolution in a time-bound manner. “A total of 16,01,202 grievances were received in EPFiGMS and 1,74,328 in CPGRAMS in FY 2024-25. Out of these, 98% of the grievances were redressed within timelines,” the EPFO said.