EPFO overhaul: Key Employees’ Provident Fund, pension and digital reforms | Explained

From auto settlement to bulk generation of UAN in special cases, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation introduced several process reforms in 2025 to improve efficiency, transparency and ease of compliance for both employees and employers. The PF organisation also launched many digital initiatives to reduce processing time and paperwork. 

Here’s a list of all reforms by EPFO in the previous year.

Efficient withdrawals

The most significant change introduced in 2025 was the auto-settlement of PF withdrawal claims up to ₹5 lakh. 

EPF members have long shared their concerns about delays and complicated processes for fund withdrawals. In the last few years, the PF regulator has been taking steps to make withdrawals faster and simpler for its users. 

Members are no longer required to upload cheques or passbooks to withdraw funds, which has remarkably reduced the settlement time and document requirements. 

In October 2025, EPFO’s Central Board of Trustees (CBT) approved key rules for partial withdrawal of funds. Earlier, 13 withdrawal provisions made the process complex for members. The CBT merged these provisions into three categories:

• Essential needs (education, illness, marriage)
• Housing needs
• Special circumstances

Key highlights:

• EPFO members can now withdraw up to 100% of the eligible balance, including their and the employer’s share.

• The minimum service requirement for all types of partial withdrawals has been reduced to 12 months.

• For education, members can withdraw up to 10 times. Further, for marriage, up to 5 withdrawals are allowed. Earlier, just three withdrawals were allowed for combined marriage and education. 

• Members are no longer required to clarify reasons for partial withdrawals under the ‘Special Circumstances’ category. Earlier, they had to provide reasons (natural calamity, lockouts/closure of establishments, continuous unemployment, outbreak of epidemic, etc.), which often resulted in claim rejections.

• To continue earning interest, members have to maintain at least 25% minimum balance of the contributions in the members’ account at all times. 

• These reforms will make way for 100% auto settlement for partial withdrawal claims with greater flexibility and minimal documentation, EPFO said.

• To avail a premature final settlement of EPF, the time period has been increased to 12 months from 2 months before. For final pension withdrawal, the period has been increased to 36 months from 2 months before.

• The EPFO has also allowed withdrawals through self-declaration for house additions or improvements. Under Para 68B(7) of the EPFO rules, members can withdraw funds for renovating their house after 60 months of the completion of the house by simply submitting a self-declaration. 

• Additionally, in September 2025, the EPFO allowed for the processing of part payments in some cases, including non-remittance of employer contributions for certain periods and during the final provident fund (PF) settlement. This was done considering the instances of rejecting the final PF settlement claims due to reasons including non-transfer of previous PF accounts. Check details here. 

Pension reforms and EPS

The EPFO, from January 2025, rolled out the Centralised Pension Payment System (CPPS), under which EPS pensioners can get their pension from any bank, at any branch across India. Recently, the EPFO launched a free doorstep Digital Life Certificate (DLC) service through India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) to promote ease of living for EPS pensioners. 

PF transfers

The EPFO has simplified the PF transfer process by removing the requirement for employer and destination office approval in most cases. In January 2025, the EPFO announced that it had removed the requirement to get approval from previous or current employers in most cases, making the claim settlement process faster. The EPFO now directly processes these claims. 

Employees can now download the transfer certificate (Annexure K) directly from the Member Portal. The transfer certificate in Annexure K has a comprehensive record of a member's Provident Fund account, making it important for members. Transfer certificates are required when PF accounts are transferred after a job switch, but they were previously only shared between PF offices and were made available to members only on their request. This will enable maintenance of a permanent digital record for future reference, promoting ease of living for EPFO members.

Vishwas scheme

EPFO approved the Vishwas Scheme in 2025, providing an alternative to the dispute resolution mechanism to settle penal damages. Under the scheme:

• Penal damages have been reduced to a flat 1% per month
• Graded rates have been introduced: 0.25% for default up to 2 months and 0.50% for default up to 4 months. 

“The scheme shall remain in operation for six months and is extendable by another six months. In another significant development, the Central Board also amended the earlier flat rate of 1% per month notified on 14.06.2024 for default up to four months on a similar graded rate,” the Ministry of Labour & Employment said in a release on December 30, 2025. 

Employment enrollment campaign

In October 2025, the Ministry of Labour and Employment launched the 'Employees' Enrolment Campaign, 2025' (EEC 2025) to improve social security coverage under EPFO. Under the scheme, which is operational from November 1, 2025 to April 30, 2026, will enable enrollment of left-out eligible employees. 

Under the campaign, employers can declare employees who were alive and working between July 1, 2017 and October 31, 2025 but could not be enrolled earlier due to any issue. Employers only need to pay ₹100 as a lump-sum penalty, a reduction from the standard penalties for non-compliance. This will encourage employers to enroll the left-out employees. 

A similar enrolment campaign was conducted in 2017 for the enrollment of left-out eligible employees from 2009 to 2016. 

Banking network expansion

In April 2025, the EPFO signed an agreement with 15 additional public and private sector banks, expanding its network to a total of 32 banks. 

“EPFO entered into agreements with 15 additional banks, both in the public and private sector, on 01.04.2025 to enable direct payment of annual collections and provide direct access to employers who maintain their accounts with these banks, to pay their monthly contributions,” the ministry said in the release. 

Digital push

EPFO enhanced UAN services in 2025: Members can now use the face authentication technology (FAT) on the UMANG app to get and activate UANs and activate existing UANs. Through this, members can instantly access their passbooks, update KYC and submit claims online. 

Along with this, EPFO has launched Passbook Lite on the Member Portal through which members can easily access their passbooks online. Previously, members had to log in to the passbook portal of EPFO to check their PF contributions and transactions. Now, with a single-login portal, members can check their contribution details easily. 

The existing Passbook Portal is still available for members who want to check a detailed view of their passbooks. 

“Launch of Passbook Lite on Member Portal for easy access to passbook, online Annexure K to provide transparent information regarding transfer of accounts and FAT-enabled UAN activation through UMANG App for faster and transparent services,” the release highlighted. 

Aadhaar and UAN

First-time Aadhaar linking or correction can be done through the Joint Declaration on the Member Portal.

Employers can directly seed Aadhaar if the details match without the requirement of any approval. In case of a mismatch, they can forward it to the EPFO offices online for rectification.

If the employer isn’t available, members can approach the public relations officer at the EPFO office. PR officers can file rectification requests online on behalf of the members. Members can also modify a wrongly linked Aadhaar with UAN on the Member Portal. 

Further, bulk UANs can be generated in special cases involving past accumulations from exempted PF trusts or recovery proceedings.

Death claim settlement

To speed up settlements and help families, the guardianship certificate is no longer required if a bank account is opened in the name of the minor nominee. PF, pension, and EDLI amounts will be directly transferred to the minor’s bank accounts. 

“...in case the nominee is a minor child, then a separate Guardianship Certificate was required to be submitted in certain cases for filing the PF claim in respect of the said minor. With a view to simplify the process and speed up the settlements in such cases, it has been decided that no such Guardianship Certificate is required to be submitted if a Bank Account is opened in the name of the minor and the payments will be directly credited to the said Bank Account,” the release said. 

Revamped ECR system

The EPFO introduced the Beta version of the Revamped Electronic Challan-cum-Return (ECR) system in September 2025. Key features of the system, from September 2025 onwards:

• Separation of return filing and payment
• System-based validations to reduce errors
• Auto-calculation of interest and damages
• Mandatory payment of interest with contributions
• Mandatory month-wise sequential filing 

Along with these transformations, the EPFO also became a member of the International Social Security Association (ISSA) Bureau for the first time. Further, in a major development, under the India-UK Double Contribution Convention agreement, employees on short-term deputation can contribute to PF in their home country for up to 36 months.

All in all, the EPFO introduced many reforms in 2025 to make its services member-centric, technologically advanced, efficient and more transparent. It laid the groundwork for more accessible social security services in India.