Saturday, February 12, 2011

Need help?? Your guide for PF Withdrawal

I’m writing this article to help people with right information to get the PF Withdrawal status, amount and many more things. I know it’s not related to investment or stock market, but it is worth to put this important information on this forum as it’s about getting our own money.

Background:
I know many people who have opted to withdraw their PF amount during their job change. They did so may be because of need for some liquid money. But this withdrawal amount takes years to get credited into their bank account and there’s no clue where to get the status of the claim. This article may help all such individuals.

I would suggest Individuals to be proactive and taking steps forward to get this amount, rather than just wait for employer and PF department to work for you.

Tips and Tricks:
o   Don’t forget to check with employer’s account department about your willingness for the PF withdrawal for PF transfer during your exit formalities from the organization. For now we’ll concentrate on the PF withdrawal.
o   You’ll get PF withdrawal form – Form -19 and Pension withdrawal form – Form 10C from the employer.  Please fill the latest and accurate information about your email id and phone number. Just be aware that PF department has come up with SMS facility where they’ll send you status of your claim through SMS. You need to mention your mobile number at the top of the withdrawal forms). For more information please visit http://www.epfindia.com/docs/SMSAdNew.pdf.
o   Mention clear bank account details in the PF withdrawal form. Please provide a clear photocopy of your bank passbook or cancelled cheque of the account where you want your money to be credited.
o   Make sure that the mobile number and the account which you’ve provided in the Form-19 are active till you get your claim.
o   Employer would submit your claim/Form 19 to the PF department after 60 days from your last working day. Generally they do this in bulk when there’s some good amount of PF withdrawal form to be submitted to the PF department. So it would take 90-120 days for your claim to be submitted with PF department. It may vary if employer is using third party to manage all this activity. In that case it would take much longer time. Now here’s the time where you need to be proactive and follow-up with Finance/HR department of your previous employer and asking for submission at the earliest. Don’t forget to ask them to provide duly signed copy of the withdrawal form from PF department. Even scanned copy should be fine. This would vouch the exact date on which you claim has been submitted to the PF department.
o   PF department has started online facility to know the claim status of your PF withdrawal. You need to select the office and mention the PF account number to know the status.  http://www.epfindia.com/ClaimStatus_New.html.  I would request you to wait for at least 15 days from the date your claim is submitted to the PF department and then check the status of your claim.
o   In case you don’t find your claim status on the central portal then you can check your claim at the regional site. You can get sites about different regional PF offices from http://www.epfindia.com/RegSites.html
o   Generally it takes 30-60 days for the PF department to process your claim. If you don’t find status of your claim on any of the portal then do submit your grievance at the portal. http://epfigms.gov.in/. This is really effective and I’ve personally resolved my claim using the portal. You’ll definitely get reply using this forum. Now with the awareness of this system many people are using this forum so you may need to send reminder for your grievance and you’ll definitely get the response.
o   One you submit your grievance you’ll get the contact person details for your grievance along with email id and contact number. You may need to call and drop email to check the status of your grievance. Resolution to your grievance in turn will resolve your PF claim as well. You can check the status of your grievance on the same portal http://epfigms.gov.in/. You can get the additional contact numbers of PF department from your previous employer as well.

Things to Remember:
o   You’ll be receiving two different amounts in your account. One is for your PF withdrawal and one is for Pension contribution. Make sure that you’ve received both of these.
o   Now you need to compare these amounts with the contribution which you’ve made for your PF with previous employer. Ask for Form 3-A from your previous employer. It should have all the information about the contribution made towards the PF.  You need to compare PF amount which you’ve received to the combined contribution which you and employer made toward PF. You need to compare pension amount with the 8.33% contribution which your previous employer made towards pension scheme. This should be clearly mentioned in form 3-A.
o   You will get Form 23 (Annual PF Statement) from the RPFC which you can verify against the claim credited in your account. You would receive to the address which you’ve mentioned in your withdrawal form. In case you need scanned copy then you can use the same forum of grievance.

I believe this article would help lot of people and guide them through PF withdrawal.

23 comments:

Shrohit Patel said...

Well written and informative. It will save a lot of people's time and energy. Keep up the good work.

Nitin said...

Great information..Very detailed and informative..Keep up the good work and keep posting such interesting articles!

Pratik Modi said...

Thanks for appreciating the efforts.

Anonymous said...

Good Job :-) Nice read.. really helpful..

Raj said...

hi Pratik,

Great work done..

Regards
Rajesh

Anonymous said...

Excellent article and really helpful.

shainesh said...

Superb....

Bhavesh said...

Helped a lot me and my friendz
Thanks pratik

Sunil said...

Thanks and its really helpful

Deepak, United Kingdom said...

Brilliant post,I was worried as my PF pending in previous 2 companies. I never attempted to withdraw 'coz lack of info but this article give full details of entire process, really well written. Thank you very much. Best Regards - Deepak

Pratik Modi said...

Dear Reader,

Many thanks for your feedback. I'm glad that this article helped you guys. Do let me know if you have specific PF withdrawal related queries.

@Deepak: I'll be happy to help in case you face some issue with your PF withdrawal.

Best Regards,
Pratik

Anonymous said...

Very good article Pama.

- Mit

Anonymous said...

Pratik,

Are there any stages for EPF payment?
I have received one payment from EPF within 20days. But when I compare it with my/employer contribution it looks bit less. So shall I expect another payment within coming days from EPF?
How many days I need to wait?
To whom should I contact for this?

- Mit

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Your article is really helpful..
I have followed the link provided by you, to know the status of my PF transfer...
It is asking for

Establishment code (7 Digits)
Extension (3 Characters)
Account Number (7 Digits)

My PF Account number is AP/XXXXX/XXXXX in this format.

Please let me know what should be filled for these three fields...

Thanks in advance
Sruthi

Pratik Modi said...

Hello Mit,

You should receive 2 chunk of the PF disbursement from PF department. One for your PF contribution and one which you made towards pension plan.

You should receive within next 15 days from the day you received your first cheque of PF.

Best Regards,
Pratik

Pratik Modi said...

Hello Shruti,

Don't worry about the extension code for your PF account.

For the establishment code - it's Maximum 7 digits. Same goes for extension and account number where it's the maximum digit you can enter.

Your PF Account : AP/XXXXX/XXXXX

First XXXXX should be put into establishment code and the second one should go for account number.

To elaborate more, establishment code is nothing but the company code using which PF department identifies the particular organization. Account number is your PF account number which helps them to find individual PF contribution within the group(organization).

You can check your PF status via below url.

http://www.epfindia.com/ClaimStatus_New.html

Do let me know if you need more information.

Hope this would help.

Best Regards,
Pratik

Jyothsna said...

Hi,

Thanks for posting a good description of the entire PF withdrawal process.It was pretty useful.
I have a basic query. My CTC was 5,50,000/-(five lakhs fifty thousand).I have applied for PF withdrawal in February 2011. Now, what is the TOTAL AMOUNT that I would be getting(Including my contribution, employers contribution and pension fund)?

Ajay said...

Hi Pratik,

All my bank accounts are joint accounts. Can I request my PF amount to be credited directly to my joint account?

Pratik Modi said...

Hello Ajay,

Yes it's possible to get your PF withdrawal amount into joint account held by you.

Best Regards,
Pratik

Anonymous said...

Hi Pratik,

Thanks for such an informative post, i have a question, i am not sure about whether the tax is deducted on PF withdrawal or not.

I have served a company for more than 5 years and some says that it does not get deducted if you withdraw after 5 years.

Thanks
SG

Just think about our country India said...

I resigned and left my old Company without serving the notice period. Now more than 1 and a half years have been passed since I relieved. in June 2011 I asked my company about to forward
1.Form-19 : To claim my final settlement of PF.
2.Form-10C To claim withdrawal benefit/scheme certificate under Employees' Pension Scheme '95. They didn't forwarded my claim papers to concerned area's PF office, giving a reason that, There is a pend-ency due amount because of leaving the job without breaking against the notice period
my question is that Do... i have any way/path to get my pf money without keeping my old employer in loop

Anonymous said...

Hello SG,

PF withdrawal amount would get added to your income in the respective financial year.

So now tax gets calculated on your gross income and you need to fill return accordingly.

Hope this would help.

Regards,
Pratik

Pratik Modi said...

Hello,

I'm not aware of a way where you can bypass employer and get the PF amount.

As per my knowledge they should initiate it by filing required documentation to the PF department. They will not do this until you pay all your dues lied as part of notice period.

I would say, speak to your ex-employer and pay all your dues on the condition of getting the PF amount.

This would help both of you.

Regards,
Pratik

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