How And When To Fill EPF Withdrawal Form?

Proposed by Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO), the Employee Provident Fund (EPF) is a scheme in which employees save up to 12% of their salary every month as a retirement fund. The employer adds a similar amount to the fund along with the Employee. If there’s an urgent financial requirement, EPF can be withdrawn before retirement. But one should know when is it necessary to fill the EPF withdrawal form. The reasons why a person can choose to epf withdrawal online can be personal or professional, but you cannot opt to withdraw it for just any purpose.

How and when to fill EPF Withdrawal Form?

As per the rules of the EPF Act, the withdrawal of EPF is allowed under the following situations:

• Retirement: When an employee reaches the age of 55 and retires, he is allowed to withdraw his EPF amount fully. An employee, before his retirement, can withdraw the 90% of his EPF a year but he shouldn’t be below 54 years.  
• Unemployment: You can also withdraw the 75% of your PF amount if you have been unemployed for a month or more. If you are unemployed for more than two months, you can avail of the remaining 25% too.
• Wedding: You can withdraw 50% of your EPF for weddings. But to be allowed to withdraw the amount you need to be in service for at least seven years.
• Medical purposes: During medical emergencies, you can withdraw the full amount of your EPF or the six times of your monthly income. You need not be employed or be in service for years in such situations. There are no criteria for withdrawing money for medical treatments.
• Repayment of home loan: If the house is named or registered under you or jointly with someone, you can withdraw up to 90% of your EPF amount. To do this you need to be in service for at least 3 years.
• Renovation and reconstruction of the house: An employee must complete at least 5 years of total service to withdraw his EPF for renovation and reconstruction of the house, keeping in mind that the house must be individually or jointly under his name. You can avail 12 times of your monthly income from your EPF money.
• Purchase or construction of the house: An employee can also choose to withdraw his EPF money to purchase a plot and construct a house. Also, the property should be registered under his name or jointly with his spouse. You can avail 24 times of your monthly income from your EPF money.

How is the filling of an EPF withdrawal form done?

You can fill an EPF withdrawal form either online or offline, i.e., a physical form.

Submitting a form online at the EPFO website:

As an employee, you can file a withdrawal claim by providing your UAN on the EPFO portal. But, before that, you need to get your UAN activated along with your bank details and KYC on the portal.

Here are the steps to fill an online PF amount withdrawal form: 

• First step is to log in to the EPFO web portal using the UAN and password.
• Next, visit the ‘Our Services’ tab and click on the option ‘Claim’ from the drop-down menu.
• Then you need to click on the ‘I Want to Apply For’ option. You will then have to choose the type of withdrawal claim. It can be partial withdrawal, full withdrawal or pension withdrawal.
• If you are eligible to avail it then only the drop-down box with the types of withdrawal will be displayed otherwise not.
• The claim is then processed to the employer for approval. Once it gets approved, the PF amount will be credited to your account within a few days.

Submitting a physical form or offline form:

To submit your form offline, you need to –

• Download a Composite Claim Form (Aadhaar) from the EPFO portal first.
• Next step is to fill it out properly and then submit it to the respective EPFO office for approval.
• If you go for the option of Non-Aadhaar Composite Claim Form, the information you provide will have to be attested by your employer before it is submitted to the EPF office.

EPF is something that helps you save money for your life after retirement. When you are earning an income, you keep contributing a small amount of your salary to your EPF account. When you retire, this will help you gather enough funds to live a happy retired life unless you withdraw it for some other purpose.