Can you withdraw EPF without supporting documents? Govt answers in Lok Sabha

Documents supporting the claim for an EPF (Employees' Provident Fund) withdrawal are not required to be submitted to the EPFO offices, the government informed Parliament on Monday, July 28.

This means that documents substantiating the claim, like a medical certificate or a sale deed for house construction, are not needed as the EPFO trusts the self-declaration made by the member.

With the introduction of the Composite Claim Form by the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) in 2017, self-declaration is used for withdrawal, instead of supporting documents. The member needs to declare the reason for withdrawal in the form, and the EPFO places its trust in the declaration. This is aimed at making the claim process more efficient and user-friendly.

In a written reply in Lok Sabha, Minister of State (Labour and Employment) Shobha Karandlaje said, “The Composite Claim Form introduced in 2017 aims to rationalize the process of claiming advances/partial & final withdrawals by relying on ‘self-certification’ for this purpose, reposing trust in the member. Accordingly, no document substantiating the claim is required to be submitted to the EPFO offices.”

Under the new simplified claim settlement mechanism, the requirement of uploading the image of the cheque leaf/passbook was removed, effective from April 3, 2025.

Claim rejections and auto-settlements

While supporting documents aren’t needed for advance claims, some documents are necessary, including:

• Filled and signed claim form
• Identity and address proof
• Bank account details
• Universal Account Number

The claim rejections due to ‘poor quality document uploads for ensuring KYC/identity with regard to bank account’ have decreased significantly to 3,29,084 in 2025-26 from 27,66,328 in 2024-25, the minister said in the reply.

“Process simplification has been done to increase auto-settlement of advance claims. The reasons for claim return/rejections have been rationalized, reducing the existing 44 reasons to 18 reasons. A remarks column to facilitate the entry of a description of any other reason has also been provided,” the reply stated.

The auto-settlement claim processing offered by the EPFO takes three days to settle claims. In April 2024, the auto-settlement limit for medical purposes (illness) was increased to ₹1 lakh from ₹50,000. Further, the limit for auto-settlement of advance claims for housing and marriage purposes is now ₹5 lakh, increased from the previous limit of ₹1 lakh, aimed at facilitating more and speedier settlements.

Further, in order to prevent the misuse of self-declaration or fraudulent claims, claims can be filed only after the member’s account is activated using Aadhaar OTP and face authentication.

“All claims are filed only after the member account is activated using Aadhaar OTP or Face Authentication. All payments pursuant to claim settlement are sent to bank accounts directly verified with the concerned bank to ensure credit to member accounts only. A system of Concurrent Audit is being undertaken, followed by Internal Audit as well as Statutory Audit to monitor any process violation,” the minister added.