As I have been working with a few friends to help consolidate, transfer or withdraw their PF depending on their need, one thing I have realized is that you need to ensure your KYC is seeded and completed when you are with your employer. KYC requires employer verfication, and it becomes a logistical nightmare to follow-up once you leave employment.
Logging into the EPFO website is smooth, on a lucky day, or terrible if you get stuck during a period when the website is being serviced/upgraded. However, login during non-working hours and the site is not as bad to work with.
Ensure the following:
Nomination is updated (there is a new process, which requires nominee's aadhaar to be updated along with photo . It is simple and OTP based, and no external validation/approval is needed
DO DO DO update the KYC. Bank+Aadhaar KYC is a must. Once you do this, ensure you check in 7-10 days for approval of employer. If there is no approval received, get relentless and chase your HR Operations or Finance contacts down .
Keep an eye on your PF balance. Not to worry about whether interest gets credited on time (it rarely does), nor for checking if your contribution was made (it will be made on time - dont worry - Most companies do this on auto pilot). Keep an eye on that balance because it is a good portion of your networth if you are employed, and can be a source of emergency funding
Ensure that all old PF account balances have been transferred, UANs have been merged. If you wait on this process, things can get difficult when you need the funds. Your old employer will turn unresponsive, or can even go defunct, and the process just gets more tiresome. The money though is always safe
If you have a balance transfer from a private trust to EPFO that needs to be done, get on it ASAP. It takes time and sometimes multiple iterations to get that done.
Trivia on this topic: EPFO is the third largest pension fund in the world in terms of number of members, and 8th in terms of Assets Under Management (AUM)!!!
Important weblinks:
Passbook: https://passbook.epfindia.gov.in/MemberPassBook/Login
EPFO member login : https://unifiedportal-mem.epfindia.gov.in/memberinterface/
Note:User ID and password for both sites are the same, and EPFO has been enforcing a password reset in Jan 2023.
Where do you stand with EPF?
I have to transfer from old employer/consolidate UANs
I need to update Bank account - KYC
I am updated with EPFO
I have never even accessed EPFO account