If you changed jobs before the Universal Account Number (UAN) system came into effect, part of your provident fund savings may still be lying unclaimed in old accounts. The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is now preparing to roll out a new digital platform to help workers track and recover that money.
Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya recently announced the upcoming E-PRAAPTI portal in New Delhi, positioning it as a step towards simplifying access to dormant PF accounts without paperwork or office visits.
What is E-PRAAPTI and how will it work?
E-PRAAPTI which is short for EPFO Platform for Reclaiming and Accessing Active/Inactive Accounts is designed to identify and consolidate old PF accounts linked to an individual.
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The mechanism is likely to employ the Aadhar-based authentication facility to trace any accounts that were created by employees due to multiple jobs prior to the launch of the UAN system in 2014.
Website/EPFINFO On successful activation, users will be able to log into the portal, establish their identity, and view any PF accounts that have remained active but untraced. This would enable them to merge these accounts with their existing UAN to make the process of accessing their money more convenient.
Authorities claimed that the portal will help avoid physical documents as well as dependency on the employer records since they could be hard to access later on.
Why so many PF accounts remain inactive
Before UAN unified provident fund records, each job created a separate PF account. If employees did not transfer balances while switching roles, those accounts remained idle.
Even today, PF accounts can turn inactive if there are no contributions for three years after leaving a job. Over time, tracking such accounts becomes cumbersome, especially when records are incomplete.
According to government estimates, lakhs of such accounts exist across the country, holding significant unclaimed savings belonging to employees.
Part of EPFO’s digital push
The new portal is one step taken by EPFO toward the modernisation of its services and introduction of paperless processes at an increased speed.
Recently, there have been reports about quick settlement of claims and more automation for advance withdrawal. These efforts are part of a wider strategy to adopt an Aadhaar-linked system.
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The E-PRAAPTI portal will see phased implementation and will first serve individuals having partial information and then expand to people who have totally forgotten about their PF account.
What this means for employees
For workers who have switched jobs multiple times, especially before 2014, the portal could help recover funds that might otherwise remain unclaimed.
While the EPFO has not announced a specific launch date, the government’s formal confirmation indicates that the platform could go live in the coming months.
