#FinancialBytes: What happens to EPF balance when you switch jobs?
The Employee Provident Fund (EPF), popularly known as Provident Fund, is a long-term investment instrument for the salaried individuals. EPF is managed by the Employees' Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) and is an essential tool of retirement planning for employees. However, a common question among EPF subscribers is what happens to their EPF balance if they switch their job. Here's everything you need to know.
What is Employee Provident Fund?
The Employee Provident Fund is a corpus of funds built by employees and their employers through regular, monthly contributions to create a fund that can be used by employees after retirement. Employees are required to contribute 12% of their basic pay+dearness allowance+retaining allowance towards EPF and an equal contribution is payable by the employers too. The EPF interest rate for FY 2018-19 is 8.55%.
What exactly happens to EPF when you change jobs?
When individuals change their job, they can either withdraw their EPF balance or transfer it to the EPF account created by their new employer. However, their UAN (Universal Account Number) remains the same; new EPF account is opened under the same UAN. However, if the new employer has created a new UAN, individuals can withdraw the old EPF balance.
Employees can merge old and new UANs too
If a new UAN is created by the employer, individuals can withdraw their old EPF account balance two months after changing the job. They would also have an option to merge their different UANs and then transfer the old account balance to the new one.
How can employees transfer their EPF balance online?
EPF balance can be transferred to new account online or offline. For online transfer, individuals should log in to UAN Member Portal. They must have activated their UAN and linked it with their Aadhaar. After entering UAN/password, select "Online Services", click "Transfer Request", provide old EPF account/Member ID. Next, they should send the EPF for digital attestation, provide required details, authorize OTP, and submit.
Self-attested copy of transfer request should be submitted to employer
After submitting the online request for EPF transfer, a tracking ID would be generated that can be used for tracking the status of the request. Individuals will have to submit a self-attested copy of the online EPF transfer request to the selected employer in 10 days. After the employer's approval, the old EPF balance is transferred to the new account.
What about the offline procedure?
As per the latest rules, for offline EPF transfer request, employees should fill the composite F-11 form while joining the new company and give a declaration about their old EPF account. The old balance will then be transferred into the new EPF account.
