EPFO subscribers alert: Big news has come for the subscribers of Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO). EPFO has closed a big facility started in Covid-19. Along with this, EPFO has issued Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for freezing and de-freezing PF Accounts.
Facility to withdraw advance money closed!
To deal with the economic crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic, the government had given the facility to employees to withdraw COVID-19 Advance Money. Under this, any EPFO member could withdraw money from his PF account as Covid advance in case of need. According to Economic Times, now this facility has been stopped. Although no notification has been issued in this regard, efforts are being made to disable the non-refundable Covid advance provision in the software so that account holders cannot apply for it.
Rules regarding account freeze also
Along with Covid-19 Advance Fund (EPFO Covid Advance Fund Withdrawal), EPFO has introduced another new rule. The organization has issued SOP to freeze and de-freeze accounts. Under this, the time limit for verifying the frozen account has been limited to 30 days. However, there is an option to extend this deadline by 14 more days. In such a situation, it will be mandatory for you to verify the account to freeze or de-freeze during this period.
Fraud can be stopped!
Fraud can be prevented with the SOP issued for freezing or de-freezing of accounts. It is said in the SOP document that the first and most important thing is that it is necessary to keep money safe in any account. In such a situation, after verification, only the person who has the account will be able to withdraw money from the account.
This is necessary for verification
EPFO said that MID or UAN and verification of establishments is necessary to identify suspicious account transactions. It is noteworthy that it runs Employee Provident Fund, PF, Pension and Insurance Scheme and a total of 6 crore people across the country are associated with this organization.
