New Delhi: The Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) is considered one of the most popular and trusted retirement savings schemes for salaried class in India. The EPFO rules mandate a Provident Fund (PF) account holder to transfer a previous EPF account to his/her new company when the person changes his job. It may be noted that scores of people are unaware about the guidelines in regards to transfer of EPF accounts and the impact on returns if someone misses.
When employees change jobs, the EPF account will not automatically get transferred to your new employer’s records. The PF account holder has to initiate the transfer process through the EPFO Member Sewa portal. Till the time the transfer process is not completed, money in the previous EPF account remains there. It may be noted that the Universal Account Number (UAN) remains the same despite the job changes.
However, many employees delay or neglect transferring the funds of the old EPF account to the new employer. The EPFO rules pays interest on the dormant EPF accounts for up to 36 months (3 years) from the last EPF contribution. If there is no contribution to the Provident account for 36 months and the employee leaves the job or has retired, the account becomes inoperative, and the interest does not not get credited.
Employees should know that if they have not transferred their EPF account after changing jobs, the old account will continue to earn interest only for three years from the last contribution. Thereafter, the interest is not credited and the beneficiary loses a significant amount. Currently, the government has fixed 8.25 percent interest for FY 2024-25.
In April 2025, the EPFO implemented two key simplifications in its claim settlement process –
- Removal of Requirement to upload image of Cheque Leaf / Attested Bank Passbook to benefit over 7.7 crore members of EPFO
- Removal of Employer Approval Requirement for Seeding Bank Account details with UAN to immediately benefit nearly 15 lakh members with pending approvals.
Changing jobs requires transferring your EPF account to avoid losing interest. The EPFO provides an online portal for this, using your UAN. Failure to transfer within 3 years of your last contribution results in the account becoming inoperative, ceasing interest accrual. Personal Finance Business News – Personal Finance News, Share Market News, BSE/NSE News, Stock Exchange News Today
