Provident Fund: All you need to know about the changes happened in EPFO

There have been some changes in the rules governing withdrawl of amount from Provident Fund. EPFO on Tuesday tweeted that existing provision of complete withdrawal after two months of unemployment remains unchanged. Among other changes in rules, a PF account holder will now be able to withdraw upto 75 percent of outstanding balance from their PF accounts if they have been unemployed for more than a month.

The remaning 25% can be withdrawn if the PF account holder continues to remain unemployed for over two months.
Here are four ways you can check your provident fund balance:

Using EPFO Portal:
Prerequisite- Before checking the EPF balance, ensure that your UAN has been activated by the employer or not. UAN stands for Universal Account Number to be allotted by EPFO. All employees should have only one unique UAN Number irrespective of the number of companies they change. Once UAN is activated, then follow the below steps:

*Open the Official EPFO portal. Click on the tab 'Our Services' and choose "for employees" option from the drop-down list.
*Now click on the option 'Member passbook' under the option "Services"
*Once you click on "Member passbook" option following Login page will appear. Here you need to enter your UAN number and password after it has been activated.
*After logging in, you can access your EPF account.

By Sending an SMS:
Prerequisite - In order to check the EPF balance through SMS facility, then you need to make sure that your UAN number is integrated with your KYC details such as bank account, Aadhaar or PAN. If not, do it yourself or else take help from the employer before checking EPF balance by SMS. Once you linked UAN number with KYC details, you have to follow the below steps:

*Send an SMS to mobile number 7738299899.
*You need to send the message as EPFOHO UAN ENG to the above-mentioned number. Here the preferred language is English, so ENG is mentioned [ENG - First three characters of the prefered language]. And if you want to receive the message in Hindi, then type in EPFOHO UAN HIN.
*Similarly based on your preference, you can receive messages in different languages including English, Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, and Bengali.

By giving a Missed Call:
Prerequisite - If you want to check PF balance through missed call service then you need to make sure that your UAN number is integrated with your KYC details such as bank account, Aadhaar or PAN. If not, do it yourself or else take help from the employer before checking EPF balance by SMS. Once you linked UAN number with KYC details, you have to follow the below steps:

*From your registered mobile number give a missed call to 011-22901406
*Soon after you give the missed call you will receive the SMS providing your PF details.