EPF account holders beware: Update e-nomination immediately after marriage or birth of a child, otherwise pension and free insurance of ₹ 7 lakh may get stuck.

New Delhi. Provident Fund (PF) account operated by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) is an extremely important medium for the social and financial security of employed employees. It is often seen that employees, when they are single at the beginning of their job, make their parents or siblings the nominee in the PF account. After this, after marriage or birth of a child, they forget to make changes in their family details and nomination. As per statutory rules of EPFO, in the PF account immediately after change of marital status or arrival of new member (child) in the family. E-Nomination It is extremely important to revise it. Otherwise, in case of any untoward incident, claiming the deposited PF amount, monthly pension and free life insurance worth lakhs of rupees for your spouse and children can become very complicated and full of legal hassles.

As per the rules made under Para 61 of the Employees Provident Fund Scheme, 1952:

• Pre-marital nomination automatically invalid: If a member had made a nomination in the name of any other relative while he was unmarried, then that old nomination becomes legally invalid as soon as he gets married.

• Statutory definition of family: In EPFO ​​rules, family for a male member means ‘wife, children, dependent parents and widow and children of deceased son’. Whereas for the female member, it means ‘husband, children, dependent in-laws/parents’.

• Nomination of outsider illegal: If a member’s legal family exists, he cannot legally nominate a third person outside the family. Even if this is done, it is considered invalid.

If correct and updated nomination is not recorded in the account, the family may lose out on these three major financial benefits:

• Free Life Insurance up to ₹7 lakh (EDLI Scheme): Every active subscriber of EPFO ​​automatically gets life insurance cover from ₹2.5 lakh to a maximum of ₹7 lakh without any premium under the ‘Employee Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme’ (EDLI). If the nominee is not updated, the family has to visit government offices to get the succession certificate from the court.

• Widow/Orphan Pension under EPS-95: Under the Employees’ Pension Scheme, the dependent spouse gets monthly widow/widower pension for life and regular child pension for two children till the age of 25 years. This process gets stuck for months if the records are not updated.

• Quick Withdrawal of PF Funds: Upon valid e-nomination, dependents can submit online claim form 10D/20 from the comfort of their homes, under which the amount is directly credited to the bank account within a few working days.

EPFO has provided the facility of digital signature based e-nomination on its Member Seva Portal. This can be accomplished in these easy steps:

1. Unified Member Portal of EPFO ​​(unifiedportal-mem.epfindia.gov.in) go to.

2. Login by entering your 12 digit UAN, password and captcha code.

3. in main menu ‘Manage’ Click on the tab and from the drop-down list ‘E-Nomination’ Select.

4. The option of ‘Family Declaration’ will appear on the screen; if you have a family ‘Yes’ Click on.

5. Next add details of your spouse and children (upload their name, date of birth, gender, relationship, current address, bank account details and passport size photo).

6. Go to ‘Nomination Details’ and decide what percentage of the total fund you want to give (eg 50% to wife, 50% to child or 100% to wife).

7. Click on ‘Save EPF Nomination’.

8. At the end ‘e-Sign’ Click on the option and verify the digital signature through OTP received on the registered mobile number by entering the Aadhaar Virtual ID (VID).

Once the OTP verification is completed, your new e-nomination is officially registered. There is no need to send any kind of physical documents to your employer (company).