The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has directed the settlement of physical claims without seeding of Aadhaar in certain cases, according to a recent circular.
The EPFO circular said that the retirement fund body received certain references from the field offices intimating their inability to seed and authenticate Aadhaar. This led to non-settlement of due claims pertaining to the members and consequent grievances, it added.
The EPFO clarified that members exempt from Aadhaar seeding may use alternative valid ID proofs for processing final settlements, which will be verified for authenticity.
Also read: Pension Rules for Central Govt Employees: Daughter’s name shall remain on family members list; family pension to be decided…
Which categories of members are exempt from Aadhaar seeding for physical settlements?
The following classes of members are identified for exemption from the operation of the instructions of the above Circular to ensure that the dues in respect of such genuine members are paid promptly.
1) International Workers(IW) who have already left India after completion of their assignments but without obtaining Aadhaar.
2) Indian Worker who had permanently migrated to a foreign country & subsequently obtained citizenship without having Aadhaar
3) Citizens of Nepal and subjects of Bhutan who fall within the definition of employee and work for and are on the rolls of an establishment covered under the EPF&MP Act but do not reside in India and consequently do not possess Aadhaar.
According to the circular, “Though UAN has to be necessarily generated for the above members in case they do not already possess an UAN, the requirement of seeding of Aadhaar with UAN is dispensed with, due to their inability to get Aadhaar now.”
“physical claims need to be accepted from these members and processed for final settlement duly verifying the genuineness of the member based on alternate IDs, i.e. Passport in case of International Workers or Citizenship Identification Certificate/Document for Nepalese and Bhutanese workers, PAN, Bank Account, etc. duly ensuring their eligibility for the benefits. Due diligence may be exercised in these cases, duly recording the details of verification carried out and approval to process such cases may be obtained from the OIC in an e-office file to be maintained for this purpose,” the EPFO said.
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