EPFO Pension: If are you also expecting to get more pensions from the Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO), then soon your hopes may be dashed. As per the order of the Supreme Court, EPFO has started giving more pensions to the people.
But about 5 lakh people may be deprived of this, as their applications for more pension may be cancelled. What is this whole matter? If you are also worried about your pension, then this information is very important for you.
EPFO started more pensions after Supreme Court order
In November 2022, the Supreme Court of the country had ordered the EPFO to provide the option of more pension to its subscribers. After this, EPFO fixed the rules and procedures for this and now has started issuing payment orders for it.
So far more than 21,000 payment orders of more pension have been issued. Payment orders for the remaining 1.65 lakh people are expected to be issued soon. But 5 lakh people are likely to be affected. This is a significant change that will affect millions of people.
These 5 lakh people may be affected
EPFO says that a large number of its customers are those who work with employers who manage the money of the Employees’ Provident Fund and Pension Fund themselves. Most of these are trust-based companies, which get an exemption from EPFO to manage the funds.
In such a situation, the hopes of these people for more pensions may be dashed. There are about 1,552 employer organizations in the country, which work under this exemption of EPFO. Most of these are private-sector organizations. This is a complex issue that can affect lakhs of employees.
More than 5 lakh applications may be cancelled
According to media reports, due to the order of the Supreme Court, EPFO has received applications from more than 7.21 lakh employees for more pensions. But EPFO may cancel more than 5 lakh of these applications. This is about 65 percent of the total applications.
Most of these applications may be from trust-based employers, as there are no clear rules and regulations for this. These do not fall under the current rules of EPFO for higher pensions. This is a big challenge that can affect lakhs of employees.
Eligibility to get higher pension
The first condition in eligibility to get ‘more pension’ from EPFO is that your EPFO membership should start after 1 September 2014. Or if you are already a subscriber of EPFO, your membership should continue even after 1 September 2014. Also, the government had informed the Lok Sabha that pensioners have applied for higher pensions under the Employees’ Pension Scheme-1995 (EPS-95) of EPFO.
In total, EPFO received 17,48,768 applications. Out of these 17.48 lakh applications, as of January 28, 2025, demand notices have been sent to members in 1,65,621 cases to deposit the balance amount for higher pension. This is important information that affects millions of pensioners.