Enacted in the year 1952 by the Government of India, the Employees’ Provident Fund is a disciplined form of saving for one’s retirement. Formulated to spread the need among the people of India to make savings for the future, the EPF is a regular monthly contribution from the employee, his/her employer with an additional interest rate added on the savings. Upon maturity - point of retirement - one can withdraw the amount tax-free, making this a reliable means for long-term retirement savings.
Having said that, knowing the status of your EPF account is a must. Reasons being that it reflects your retirement savings and plans and to check if the contributions (from the employee and employer) are making its way on a regular monthly basis to your account. Back in the day, one would receive a PF slip of the consolidated savings for the financial year on request and enquiries had to be answered by a HR team working for the EPFO. Today however, checking your EPF balance can be done at the drop of a hat. Here are a few ways you can check your EPF balance and your monthly contributions:
Using your UAN:
A Universal Account Number is a reference number given to every employee holding an EPF account. Throughout, the number stays the same despite multiple job changes in one’s career. The introduction of UAN made many processes of the EPF seamless as compared to before. Now employees can login to the UAN portal to check their PF balance and see if there are any pertaining discrepancies. Once you have an activated UAN, the employee will receive a monthly SMS of one’s PF updated balance, making it almost redundant to login to the UAN portal.
Using the UAN portal, an employee can download a PF passbook (to check the history of contributions). The passbook contains vital details of the employee’s account such as:
- The regular monthly contribution
- The employer’s contribution towards PF
- The employer’s contribution towards EPS (Employees’ Pension Scheme)
- The updated PF balance
Using the EPF member portal to download PF passbook:
Other than using the UAN portal to keep a close eye on your PF account status and balance, you can facilitate the use of the EPF member portal to do the same. Used before the introduction of the UAN portal, one can download a PF passbook from the member portal. Though the UAN portal facilitates a convenient method of keeping a tab on your PF account, the EPF member can be used in certain cases:
- When one has forgotten the password or doesn’t have an active UAN account.
- In certain ways it’s easier as one just needs to enter their PF number or mobile number to access account information or download a passbook.
- For registration to the EPF member portal, all you need is your regular KYC documents.
- To download a PF passbook, one needs to enter an OTP (One time password) after logging in.
Facilitating the EPF’s missed call & SMS service:
Certainly the easiest way to learn about your PF account status and balance is the EPF’s missed call service. All that the employee needs to do is to give a missed call to a designated number (011 2290 140) and the EPFO will revert with a message stating such details:
- Your D.O.B
- UAN
- KYC document status
- Updated PF balance with the last contribution (from employee and employer)
The EPF Mobile app:
The official mobile app for the EPFO, a subscriber can facilitate this app to activate his/her UAN online account. Through this app, an employer can check his/her PF contributions while even pensioners can check their pension status. Though, one has to activate their UAN on the UAN portal to have access to checking their PF balance, contribution and their overall account status.
Using the EPF online balance is another way of finding out your PF account balance, but considering the convenient use of the app, the UAN portal, missed call and SMS service, the EPF online balance mode of checking your account status is the least suggestible.
Understanding that 8.33% of the employee’s contribution goes to one’s pension fund (Employee Pension Scheme) will avoid any confusion when tallying your balance. Also, attaching a loan to your PF account could also result in you seeing a low balance in your account. All in all, a monthly revisal of your PF contribution and the overall balance could be imperative to safeguard your PF savings and plan for retirement.