EPF is a government-backed retirement benefit offered to salaried employees. Under this, the employer and the employee make an equal contribution to the PF account. Generally, this contribution varies between 10-12% of the basic salary of the employee. However, in the case of women, the contribution from the employee side is 8% for the first 3 years of the employment, although the employee contributes 12%.
Earlier, only employers used to share the PF account statement with the employees to give information about the balance. However, presently there are more convenient online methods like EPF balance check through missed call, sending an SMS, UAN passbook, etc. All these methods are great for tracking the PF balance, planning expenses, and applying for loans against the PF balance.
Online Methods for Checking PF Balance
Employees today don’t need to wait till the end of the financial year to know their PF balance. They can check their balance any time through the following ways:
- EPF Balance Check Through Missed Call
Employees who are members of EPF can check their balance by giving a missed call from their registered mobile number to 011-22901406. However, to use this service, their PAN, bank account, and Aadhaar number must be linked to their UAN passbook. Therefore, if these details are not linked to the UAN, the employees need to request their employer to link them. So that they can get their PF statement anytime through a miss call. Employees don’t necessarily need a smartphone for EPF balance check through missed call. Instead, they can have any mobile phone to use this facility.
- Sending an SMS
Apart from knowing the EPF balance check through missed call, employees can also know their balance through an SMS. If the details of the employee’s UAN passbook are registered with the EPFO, they can easily know about their latest contribution and the PF balance via an SMS.
They need to format their message as ‘EPFOHO UAN ENG’ and send it to 7738299899. However, the content of the message varies from one employee to another because of the individual UAN and ten different language availability.
The first three initials of the following languages are used for the SMS content:
- English
- Hindi
- Marathi
- Punjabi
- Kannada
- Bengali
- Gujarati
- Telugu
- Malayalam
- Tamil
- EPF Balance Through the UMANG App
The Government of India launched this app to offer convenient balance checks for PF account holders. UMANG is an acronym for the Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance. To access this application, employees need a smartphone, internet connection and a mobile number linked to their UAN.
Following are the steps to use the UMANG app:
- Download and install the application from the play store/app store.
- Select EPFO by opening the app.
- Go to the employee-centric services.
- Select the view passbook option to get the EPF balance.
- Fill the UAN and click on the ‘get OTP’ option.
- Enter the OTP you receive on the registered mobile number to complete the login procedure.
- After you log into the account, select the correct ID to view the PF account details.
- PF Balance Check Using the Web Portal
Along with EPF balance check through missed call and SMS, employees can also use the web portal to view their UAN passbook details. Following are the procedure to check the EPF balance with the web portal:
- Visit the EPFO login website.
- Click the ‘for employees’ option under the services tab.
- Afterwards, select the ‘member passbook’ option.
- Complete the login procedure by entering the UAN and password.
- After successful login, select the account to view the balance details.
Conclusion
EPF savings are essential for leading a standard life after retirement, during the process of job change, or during unemployment. However, if you want to continue the PF account with your previous employee before transferring it to the current employer, you can do this as the interest will keep adding to your account. In addition, the EPF balance check through missed call and other online methods to check the balance will reflect the details of all the PF accounts you have with your current employer and previous employers.
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