Settlement of Physical Claims without UAN by EPFO
Today, dated 17 May 2024, the Employees' Provident Fund Organization (EPFO), under the Ministry of Labour & Employment, Government of India, issued a very crucial circular addressing the challenges in settling physical claims in death cases without the Universal Account Number (UAN). This move aims to overcome the hurdles related to Aadhaar authentication, ensuring timely disbursement of benefits to eligible beneficiaries. Here, we delve into the details of this circular, the underlying issues, and the solutions proposed.
To deal with below exhibit hurdle the said notification No:WSU/2020/ClaimsettlementwithoutUAN-clarification(E25432)/1208 was issued dated 17 May 2024 as under subject Settlement of Physical Claims without UAN :-
1. Inaccurate/Incomplete Aadhaar Details: Many members have discrepancies in their Aadhaar information, such as incorrect personal details or incomplete records. This hinders the authentication process, which is crucial for claim settlements.
2. Unavailability of Aadhaar: For members who passed away before the Aadhaar system was widely
adopted, their Aadhaar details are either non-existent or not linked to their provident fund accounts.
3. Deactivated Aadhaar: In some cases, the Aadhaar numbers have been deactivated, posing a challenge in the verification process.
4. Technical Errors: Technical issues in validating Aadhaar details through the UIDAI database have also been reported, causing delays in processing claims.
Notification dated 17 May 2024
All Regional PF Commissioner/Officers-In Charge (All RO's/DOs)
Sub: Settlement of physical claims without UAN-reg Ref: Circular No WSU/2020/Claim settlement without UAN- clarification/914 dated 24.09.2020.
Madam/Sir,
With regard to the instructions issued vide the above circular, certain references have been received from the field offices intimating their inability to seed and authenticate Aadhaar in death cases due to inaccurate/incomplete Member details in Aadhaar, unavailability of Aadhaar in respect of pre-Aadhaar death cases, deactivated Aadhaar, technical error invalidating Aadhaar from UIDAI database, etc. Further, the above said physical claims could not be processed by the Field Offices, leading to avoidable delay in the timely release of benefits to such beneficiaries.
In view of the difficulties being faced by the field offices and given the fact that Aadhaar detalls cannot be corrected/updated after the death of the Member, It has been decided that henceforth, in all such death cases, processing of physical claims without seeding Aadhaar may be allowed as a temporary measure but ONLY with the due approval of the OIC in an e-office file duly recording the details of verification done to confirm the membership of the deceased and the genuineness of the claimants. This may be carried out among other actions of due diligence, as deemed fit by the OIC, so as to avoid any fraudulent withdrawals.
The above instructions would apply only to those cases where the details of the member are correct in UAN but inaccurate/incomplete in Aadhaar database. Wherever, the data in Aadhaar are correct but inaccurate/incomplete in UAN, the instructions issued in Para 6.9 and 6.10 of JD SOP version-2 dated 26.03.2024 will be strictly adhered to by the field offices to rectify the data in the UAN, seed & validate/authenticate the Aadhaar so as to comply with the instructions as issued in the earlier Circular dated 24.09.2020 vide reference, without any deviation. whatsoever.
(This issues with the approval of CPFC)
Sekil
MSKVV Satyanarayana ACC, WSU
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