The prime minister of India, Shri Narender Modi at a function organized by the Ministry of Labor and Employment initiated 5 different programs. The main aim of initiating these programs was to ensure” minimum government and maximum governance” and to bring more transparency and speed in the governance. One amongst such scheme was the Universal Account Number (UAN). It aimed at making the Provident Fund Account portable, hassle free and easily accessible to 4.17 crore employees in the country.Under the scheme, approximately 4 core employee under EPF.
Scheme was compiled and digitized and provided a Universal Account Number to all.The UAN will be linked with a person Aadhaar number and bank account. Further, the Prime minister also stated that this universal number will also consist of the KYC details of all the employees and will also ensure the inclusion of the weaker section of the society.
With the introduction of the UAN, EPF accounts will get updated monthly and an SMS about the same will be sent the holder. There will be easy portability through UAN.
UAN refers to Universal Account Number is a 12-digit number comprising of all PF account across different organization centralized into one. The card comprises of employee’s photo and KYC and thus it also helps companies to know their employees.
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Features of UAN
- UAN will ensure the centralization of employee data and decrease the dependency of employers on EPF.
- The UAN acts as an umbrella for a multiple member ids.This means that even if a person has a number of PF account he or she can link all the account under one UAN.
- It will help in easy transfer and withdrawal of claims
- The UAN portal can also be used to check EPF claim, EPF passbook, and other facilities.
- The employer will no longer require to hold back the employee’s number.
- employees can also check their employer’s contribution by checking their EPF account every month.
- Each employee will be issued with one UAN number
- Any change in job will not lead to change in UAN
- UAN employee registration is done through employee’s organization
- The linking of different account under UAN can be done in EPFO portal
Advantages for the Employees
1)Less employee intervention: With UAN any request for PF withdrawal does not require the approval of the previous employer. The PF account of your old organization will be automatically linked to the PF account of your new organization and money will automatically transfer from the old to the new account
2)Easy transfer of funds: UAN ensures that change in an organization does not lead to a transfer of money from the employer account to another account. All you need to do is give your KYC and UAN details to your new employer. Once these details are verified your old account will be linked to your new account.
3)PF Passbook: By mentioning the UAN in the PF passbook, you can also check your balance, an SMS will be sent every time when money is transferred or credited to the account.
4)Efficient pension Scheme: Since money is easily transferred from one account to another, employees do not need to withdraw their Pf money. This will ensure greater pension money after retirement.
How to Link Account Using UAN?
Earlier it was difficult to maintain multiple accounts at the same time. However, with the introduction of the system of UAN, employees do not have to worry about the transfer of the amount from one account to another.
Accounts can be linked by following the procedure below:
- To verify the transfer claim, employers must have the digital certificates of the employees.
- Your EPFO database must comprise of your both previous and your present PF account numbers and member ID.
- Register in the EPFO online portal.
- Now, Log on to the OTCP website, select the document type and the fill in your document details.
- Go to menu bar, select request for claim under claim and fill in the necessary details
Part A: Name, Bank account number, Email id, IFSC code of the bank.
Part B: Details of your PF account of your previous establishment, name, and address of the establishment. If your details are already in the EPFO database, it will automatically get filled up but if the details are not available then you will have to fill it up manually.
Part C: Here you will have to fill in the details of your current employer which will again be crosschecked against the EPFO database records.
- Select the employer (present and previous), who will attest your claim
- By clicking on preview, you can view your application and you can change the data if you want to.
- Download the transfer claim form.
- Next, you need to take the print out of form 13 and present it to the employer to complete the claim submission.
You will also be able to check the status of transfer through member portal account.
How to Activate UAN?
After getting the UAN number an employee must activate it by visiting the EPCO online portal.The following steps must be followed to activate the UAN number:-
- Visit the EPFO website and click on the “Activate your UAN” link
- Fill in your UAN number, mobile number, and Member ID in the UAN activation page
- Click on the“Get Pin” option. After this, you will receive an activation PIN on the registered mobile number.
- Fill the PIN number and click submit.
- Next, write your UAN login password to complete the process.
Linking UAN and Aadhaar
The Labour ministry has made it compulsory to link Aadhaar with UAN. This is because the Aadhaar comprises of address and identity details but also the biometric details of an individual.This makes the verification process easier and quicker. Further employees can update their KYC details in future using their Aadhaar details by simply logging in to their UAN account. Aadhaar can be linked with UAN with 4 easy steps:-
- Log in to UAN member portal. For successful login, a person will first have to activate the UAN.
- If already a member, enter your UAN number, password, and the captcha to sign in.
- Click on “Manage” on the UAN dashboard and then select “KYC”.
- After this, you will be redirected to a page where a form will appear on the screen to update KYC document.Enter the number and name of the documents in the appropriate columns provided.In the case of bank account you will also have to submit your IFSC code and in the case of passport or driving license, the expiry date will have to be mentioned.
Further, there are a number of benefits of linking Aadhaar with UAN. For instance
- Now, PF claims can be withdrawn within 5 days if applied online using Aadhaar number.This is mainly done to encourage Aadhaar seeding.
- Now, there will be less employee intervention as the claims will be available in field office application software without routing the same through the employer.
- The online claim forms will be available for only those people who have seeded their Aadhaar number and bank details with the UAN.