EPFO settles 56.79 lakh COVID-19 advance claims, releases over Rs 14,000 crore until Dec

Retirement fund physique EPFO has settled 56.79 lakh COVID-19 non-refundable advance claims, and has disbursed Rs 14,310 crore until December 31, 2020, reflecting the antagonistic influence of the pandemic on the formal sector workforce.
When the coronavirus-induced lockdown was imposed in March, the central authorities had allowed over 6 crore subscribers of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation’s (EPFO) to withdraw an quantity not exceeding their three months primary pay and dearness allowance from their EPF account, to help them through the nationwide lockdown.

“The EPFO has settled 56.79 lakh COVID-19 withdrawal claims and disbursed Rs 14,310 crore to subscribers during the pandemic till December 31, 2020,” a supply mentioned.
According to the supply, the EPFO has settled 197.91 lakh claims associated to ultimate settlement, demise, insurance coverage, advance claims and disbursed Rs 73,288 crore until December 31, 2020.
The quantity of disbursals beneath COVID-19 claims to subscribers is a large quantity of over one fifth of the entire disbursement through the interval by the EPFO.

According to the supply, the quantum of the disbursement quantity beneath the COVID-19 claims displays the stress among the many formal sector employees because of the antagonistic influence of the pandemic, which resulted in job loss, pay cuts and compelled migration and so on.
The Centre launched the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) on March 26, to supply help to the economically weaker sections in view of the pandemic.
The authorities introduced a provision for withdrawal from the EPF Scheme, offering for non-refundable withdrawal to the extent of primary wages and DA for 3 months or as much as 75 per cent of the quantity standing to member’s credit score within the EPF account, whichever is much less.
Further, non-public EPF trusts additionally settled 4.19 lakh COVID-19 claims and disbursed Rs 3,983 crore to the members to supply liquidity to satisfy the exigencies as a consequence of pandemic, the supply mentioned.

Private EPF trusts handle the fund in addition to EPF accounts of their members themselves. These companies are exempted from submitting EPF returns to the EPFO. These are regulated by the EPFO.

During the pandemic, the EPFO got here out with revolutionary measures like auto-settlement mode and multi-location declare settlement to make sure settlement of COVID-19 claims inside three days regardless of restrictions on full deployment of employees.