The current deadline to apply for higher pension under the Employees’ Pension Scheme ended on June 26, 2023. Prior to this, it was extended twice, once on March 3 and then on May 3.
“Last opportunity of 15 days is being given to remove any difficulty faced by the eligible pensioners or members. Accordingly, the last date for submission of applications for validation of option or the joint options by employees is extended to 11.07.2023,” the EPFO said on Monday.
“Any eligible pensioner or member who on account of any issue in updation of KYC, faces difficulty in submitting an online application for validation of option or joint option, may immediately lodge such grievance on portal for resolution. This will ensure proper record of such a grievance for further action,” it added.
The fresh extension of three months for employers will prolong the process to pension computation to almost 10 months since the Supreme Court directive dated November 4 which had upheld the amendments to the Employees’ Pension (Amendment) Scheme, 2014 to allow employees who were existing EPS members as on September 1, 2014 to contribute up to 8.33% of their ‘actual’ salaries, as against 8.33% of the pensionable salary capped at Rs 15,000 a month, towards pension.
So far 1.5 million applications for higher pensions have been received of which over three lakh applications are from retirees while the rest are from beneficiaries currently in service. However, only about 1000 applications have been processed for which dues have been raised by the EPFO for transfer from the provident fund to the pension fund account of the beneficiary. Some of the recurring issues being faced by the applicants include lack of clarity on the amount to be deposited to avail the higher pension, difficulties in processing of applications, inability of employers’ to process and approve the joint application due to lack of historical wage data and mismatch between Aadhar and the EPF universal account number. (UAN). Besides, the scheme does not have an exit option which is a cause of concern for those who may not have enough funds available in the PF account owing to partial withdrawals. According to sources, in such cases the applicant will have a three month window to give their consent for transfer of funds to pension account, in the absence of which the application will stand null and void.
In the case of applicants who have enough funds in their PF account and yet they want to exit the scheme at a later date after the dues have been raised, sources said, they can request their employer to reject their joint application to avoid automatic debit of funds into pension accounts.
As per the Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995, administered by EPFO, the employers’ contribution of 12% toward the PF corpus is split into 8.22% which goes to the pension scheme and 3.67% to EPF scheme. The government, however, contributes 1.16% for an employee’s pension for those below the wage threshold of Rs 15,000 while employees do not contribute to the pension scheme.