How to withdraw PF online: Here is a step-by-step guide

Employee Provident Fund or EPF is one of the best ways to save money for salaried individuals. Established by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO), the scheme encourages savings for individuals for their retirement. But, what if you want to withdraw that money? In order make the process easy, the EPFO has a withdrawal option for its members on the website. All you need to do is link your Aadhaar card as after that, no attestation from your employer is required to carry out the process. Earlier, it was mandatory for employees to have the attestation of their employers to facilitate withdrawal. But now, the EPFO has eased the process on realising how impractical the situation of having your employer’s signature to make a withdrawal can be. 

However, early withdrawal of provident fund is not encouraged as the amount invested in this scheme is used to build a corpus for retirement. It helps you save big every month and gives an attractive interest rate of 8.75%. This interest earned on your PF account is tax-free (if withdrawn after 5 years of PF account opening).

Despite this, in case you need the money for some reason, here is how you can withdraw it:

Step 1: Visit the EPFO website and click on the tab ‘For Employees’ and select the option titled ‘Our Services’.

Step 2: Now under the ‘Our Services’ section is an option ‘Member UAN/Online Services.’

Step 3: The subscriber will then be redirected to the UAN portal, where they would have to click on the option ‘Activate your UAN’.

Step 4: The subscriber will have to fill out a form to generate the authorization PIN and must enter it to activate their UAN.

Step 5: When the UAN is activated, the subscriber will receive an SMS confirming the same.

Step 6: The subscriber will also receive a password to access their EPF account information through the UAN portal.

The steps to file an online claim for PF withdrawal are as follows:

Step 1: Login to the EPFO portal using the UAN and password.

Step 2: Verify KYC details by clicking on the ‘Manage’ tab.

Step 3: Next step is to visit the ‘Our Services’ tab and click on the option titled ‘Claim’ from the drop-down list.

Step 4: Under the section titled ‘I Want to Apply For’, the subscriber will then be required to choose the type of withdrawal claim they wish to file—full withdrawal, partial withdrawal or pension withdrawal.

Step 5: The drop-down box with the types of withdrawal will only be displayed if the subscriber is eligible to avail it.

The claim of the employee is then forwarded to the employer for approval. Once approved, the PF amount will be credited to the subscriber’s account within 10 days.