PF Account: Need To Correct Your Basic Details? How To Do It Online

Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) subscribers can request a change in their basic details online, through the EPFO's (Employees' Provident Fund Organisation) Unified Portal - unifiedportal-emp.epfindia.gov.in. This was said by retirement fund body EPFO on microblogging site Twitter. Retirement fund body EPFO provides an online facility that enables EPF members to request a correction or update in their basic details online. This online facility works on an Aadhaar verification-based method, wherein the requested changes are compared with the details in the Aadhaar database, maintained by the Aadhaar card-issuing authority, the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India).

Provident fund body EPFO had in November 2017 introduced an online facility for EPF subscribers to request changes in their basic details - such as name, gender and date of birth (DoB). EPFO had said in a statement dated November 21, 2017: "Many references are being received that members are facing problem in seeding Aadhaar with UAN due to mismatch in Name, DoB or Gender is UAN data and UIDAI data."

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At that time, an EPF subscriber looking to correct the basic details fed into his or her UAN had to submit a joint request, along with the employer, to the concerned EPFO Field Office. The online facility is aimed at reducing "the paperwork and time delay" in the existing process, according to the EPFO. Under the online process, the request is submitted online by the EPF member. The employer is then required to forward the online request to the concerned EPFO office.

How EPF Members Can Correct Basic Details Online - via UAN and Aadhaar number

Provident fund body EPFO has listed twelve steps explaining the process flow for this online functionality. These are:

1: The member logs in through his or her UAN and password on the Member Interface of the Unified Portal. A link to this portal is given here.

2. The member can then proceed by clicking on 'Modify Basic Details' under the Manage section.

3. After this, the user is required to enter the correct details as per his or her Aadhaar. The system uses these details to verify those in the UIDAI-Aadhaar data.

4. Once the user clicks on 'Update Details' on the previous screen, a request is submitted to employer for further approval. Before submission by the employer, the employee can withdraw the request by clicking on the 'Delete Request' button.

5. After this stage, the employer will log in to Employer Interface of Unified Portal. Here's a link to this portal, meant for employers.

6. The employer can then view the change requests submitted by the employee by clicking on 'Details Change Request' under the 'Member' section.

7. The employer can view the online requests received from employees and can thus take appropriate action by giving remarks.

8. After approval of request, the employer can see the latest status of request.

9. After approval of request by the employer, the request will appear as a task in the login of Dealing Hand (concerned person of the EPFO office) in the Field Office Interface of Unified Portal.

10. The Dealing Hand can login and view the online change requests by clicking on 'Details Change Request' under the 'Member' section.

11: After due verification, the Dealing Hand can submit his or her recommendations to Section Supervisor. "The Dealing Assistant can put the case either for Approval or Rejection by selecting the appropriate radio button i.e. Recommended for Approval or Recommended for Rejection with proper remarks. In the same manner Section Supervisor can submit his/her recommendations to APFC/RPFC," according to the EPFO.

12. After this, the Assistant Provident Fund Commissioner (APFC) or Regional Provident Fund Commissioner (RPFC) can approve or reject the case, according to the EPFO.

EPF or Employee Provident Fund is a long-term investment instrument provided by EPFO for salaried individuals. Every year, the employer and the employee deposit 12 per cent of the former's contribution with the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). That means that every month, 24 per cent of the employee's basic salary is saved with the EPFO in the EPF account (12 per cent by employee and employer each).