Retirement fund organization (EPFO) Employee Provident Fund organization informed that they had launched a multi-location claim settlement facility to accelerate the claim of members. The facility will bring a paradigm shift that enables the EPFO offices to settle their claims from any region across the country. All types of online claims including provident fund, pension, partial withdrawal, claims, and transfer claims can be processed under this new facility. The novel Corona crisis has effected almost 135 regional offices of the Employee Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) across the country with varying levels of severity based on their location.
The ministry said they had observed that many offices in Mumbai, Thane, Haryana, and Chennai zones operate with less than half of their count due to the COVID 19 pandemic. There is also a considerable increase in the claim receipts because of the recent arrival and spreading of the novel coronavirus. As a result, the claim pendency in these offices rises to higher levels leading to delay in the claim settlement cycle. With the introduction of recent auto settlement mode and working, staff could help to bring the settlement period down to three days for COVID-19 advances. To reduce the delay regarding the settlement and to ensure uniformity in the settlement process across the country.
EPFO replaces the existing settlement process to a multi-location claim settlement facility. This will reduce the workload of the staff due to COVID 19 restrictions. This will allow to speed up of the settlement process through the appropriate intervention of the EPFO workforce in all its regional offices across the country. The development aimed at promoting the standard of living of the members and so far they had achieved it in record time.
The first cluster of multi-location claims under the path-breaking project was settled on June 10 in the Gurugram region. The claim of the employees concerning the regional offices of the Gurugram region was settled by EPFO staff locating in Chandigarh, Ludhiana, and Jalandhar offices. After the settlement process, the payment was made from the Gurugram region to the Individual member bank account. Still, the problem arises when some of the regional zones fall in the containment zone but through the EPFO launch, the claims on the containment zones are distributed to the other offices for settlement.
