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If there is one single thing we can all count on – it is definitely our provident funds. It is something stacked for the future and something that can also come in handy right now through a partial or premature withdrawal. But there might be a lot of people who keep wondering about the process of making this withdrawal, and here we are going to talk about this. Before we get going that far, let’s talk about the primary of it.
What is the Employee Provident Fund?
Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF), often known as PF (Provident Fund), is required savings and retirement scheme for qualifying employees. Employees can rely on the fund’s corpus after they retire.
Employees must contribute 12% of their base pay to this fund each month, according to EPF rules. Annual interest is paid on funds put in EPF accounts.
However, this article describes how to make premature withdrawals from an EPF account if specific circumstances are met.
There are different kinds of withdrawals that you can have in the case of the withdrawals, and they are:
- Complete withdrawal
- PF advance withdrawal
- Partial Withdrawal
Let’s get a little more deeply into this topic.
Types of PF Withdrawals
a) Complete Withdrawal
In any of the following circumstances, EPF can be totally withdrawn.
- When someone decides to retire.
- When an individual has been out of a job for more than two months, to make a withdrawal in this situation, individuals must get an attestation from a gazetted office.
Individuals who have not been unemployed for two months or more are not permitted to withdraw their whole EPF balance while changing jobs (i.e., the interim period between changing jobs).
b) Partial or advanced PF Withdrawal
There are seven instances where you can make partial withdrawals, and they are:
1) For Construction/House
The withdrawal limit at the time of house construction/purchase is described below.
- Land can be purchased for up to 24 times the monthly basic salary plus a dearness allowance.
- Housing allowances of up to 36 times the monthly base income + dearness allowance are available.
2) For Marriage
The withdrawal limit for marriage purposes is up to 50% of the employee’s portion of the employee provident fund contribution (EPF).
3) For Medical Needs
The withdrawal limit for medical purposes is six times the basic monthly wage or the total share of the employees plus interest.
4) For Renovation
The PF withdrawal limit for house renovation purposes is up to 12 times the employee’s monthly pay plus a dearness allowance, the total cost, or the employee contribution plus interest.
5) For Education
The withdrawal limit for education purposes is up to 50% of the employee’s portion of the payment to the employee provident fund (EPF).
6) Advances Before Retirement
If a person wishes to withdraw funds from their PF account before retirement, they may do so up to 90% of their accrued value plus interest.
7) For Home Loan Repayments
For the purpose of house loan repayment, the entire corpus, which includes both the employer and employee contributions plus interest, or the total amount payable on a home loan in terms of principal and interest, is up to 36 times the base monthly wage plus the dearness allowance.
How to Make this Withdrawal Online?
Before you begin the process of withdrawing EPF, make sure your UAN is activated and linked to your KYC (Aadhaar and PAN Card details). After that, you must complete the following steps to withdraw your EPF online:
- Enter your credentials to access the UAN member portal.
- From the top menu bar, select ‘Online services.’
- Choose the ‘Claim’ option from the dropdown menu (Form-31, 19 & 10C.)
- The following screen will reveal all of the member information.
- On this screen, input the last 4 numbers of your account number and press the ‘Verify’ button.
- Continue with the procedures after signing the Certificate of Undertaking by selecting ‘Yes.’
- To withdraw your funds online, use the ‘PF Advance (Form 31)’ option.
- This will take you to a new section of the form where you will be asked to pick the ‘Purpose for which withdrawal advance is necessary.’
- You will be requested to input the withdrawal amount as well as the employee’s address in the same area of the form.
- After inputting your information, be sure to check the certification box to submit your EPF withdrawal application.
- It is crucial to remember that depending on the purpose of your withdrawal; you may be required to produce scanned papers.
- After you have completed all of the paperwork, you must contact your employer to have your request to withdraw EPF approved.
Please keep in mind that EPFO would send you a message regarding your withdrawal request to your registered mobile number. The requested amount will be sent to your bank account once your claim is processed. In most cases, the money is credited to the employee’s account within 15-20 working days.
How do you Make this Withdrawal Offline?
If you are uncomfortable utilizing the internet or online portals, you can always withdraw your EPF through an offline method. All that you would have to do is go to the appropriate EPFO and fill out a Composite Claim Form.
It is vital to understand that there are two sorts of Composite Claim Forms: Aadhaar and Non-Aadhaar. The former requires no employer attestation, but the latter requires your employer to attest the form before it is sent to the jurisdictional EPFO office.
Even though the primary goal of accumulating funds in an EPF account is to establish a corpus for the member’s retirement, he or she is permitted to withdraw a portion of the accrued corpus before the due date. While an offline EPF withdrawal mechanism is available, members can quickly withdraw EPF online by following a simple procedure. Online EPF withdrawal requests can be processed within 15 to 20 working days of being submitted.
Conclusion
Making a withdrawal of or from your provident fund is a big move since it involves using up your retirement money. This is exactly why you have to make wiser and better decisions with your provident fund.
