EPFO announced to provide Universal Account Number from October 2014

Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) on 24 March 2014 announced to provide Universal Account Number (UAN) to its five crore subscribers from 1 October 2014.

Permanent or Universal Account Number (UAN) will facilitate subscribers to avoid filing Provident Fund (PF) account transfer claims on changing jobs. After getting UAN, a subscriber would not be issued new PF account number on joining new employer.

The UAN would be one account number which would be allotted to a subscriber for various schemes run by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) for their entire service period with different employers.

C-DAC will prepare a roadmap for implementing the UAN programme.

The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) is the premier research and development organisation under the Union Ministry of Communications & Information Technology for carrying out R&D in IT, Electronics and associated areas.

Significance of UAN

It will facilitate subscribers to avoid filing provident fund (PF) account transfer claims on changing jobs.

It is expected to provide great relief to the workers in organised sector who frequently change jobs, specially the construction sector.

The UAN will help reduce the workload of the EPFO. During 2012-13, EPFO received over 12 lakh claims for transfer of PF account on changing of jobs by its subscribers.

About EPFO

The Employees’ Provident Fund came into existence with the promulgation of the Employees’ Provident Funds Ordinance on the 15th November 1951. It was replaced by the Employees’ Provident Funds Act, 1952.

It is now referred as the Employees’ Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952. The Employees' Provident Funds Bill aims to provide for the institution of provident funds for employees in factories and other establishments.