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The Employees provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has announced that certain classes of employees do not need to seed Aadhaar for the settlement of their physical claims. Typically, EPFO subscribers should seed their UAN (Universal Account Number) to Aadhaar for settling claims; some exceptions have recently been incorporated via a circular dated November 29, 2024.
These categories of workers include the following:
1. International workers who have left India after completing their assignments but without obtaining aadhaar.
2. An Indian worker who permanently migrated to a foreign country and obtained citizenship without having Aadhaar.
3. Citizens of Nepal and subjects of Bhutan who fall within the definition of employee and work for and are on the rolls of an establishment covered under the EPF&MP Act but do not reside in India and consequently do not possess Aadhaar.
Therefore, physical claims need to be accepted from these members and processes for final settlement verifying the genuineness of the member based on alternative identity documents such as passport in case of international workers or citizenship identification certificate/ document for Nepalese and Bhutanese workers.
It is also important that PAN and bank accounts etc. are seen to check their eligibility for these benefits.
The EPFO, in its circular, also highlighted that due diligence be exercised in these cases, duly recording the details of verification, and approval to process such cases may be obtained from the OIC in an e-office file to be maintained for this purpose.
As part of due diligence, officials can verify bank accounts in all cases and a confirmation could be sought from the employer only if the balance exceeds ₹5 lakh. For settlement, mode of credit would be NEFT, the circular further mentions.
Meanwhile, EPFO has clarified that UAN has to be necessarily generated for the members in case they do not already possess an UAN. It’s only the requirement of seeding of aadhaar with UAN that has been done away because of their inability to procure unique ID at this stage now.
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