Conditions Under Which You Can Withdraw From Your Provident Fund Account

Employees' Provident Fund or EPF is a government-run pension scheme focused on salaried individuals. Currently, investment in EPF fetches interest at the rate of 8.65 per cent. In EPF, a mandatory contribution is deducted from the salary of an employee and contributed towards the provident fund. Employees' Provident Fund Organization (EPFO), the nodal agency that monitors EPF contributions, allows the subscriber - or employees of an organisation of 20 or more individuals - to make a partial withdrawal or "advance" from a PF corpus under certain conditions, according to its website - epfindia.gov.in.

The subscribers can put a claim for 'advance' withdrawal online via EPFO's website - unifiedportal-mem.epfindia.gov.in. The claim is then forwarded to the employer for approval. Once approved, the amount is credited to the subscriber's account within 10 days, according to the EPFO's website.

Here are some of the conditions in which a partial withdrawal - or advance - is permitted from a provident fund (PF) account:

Partial withdrawal from EPF accounts is allowed for purchase/construction of house, repayment of loan, non-receipt of wage for two months, marriage of self/daughter/son/brother, for medical treatment of family members etc, according to EPFO.

An EPF subscriber can withdraw up to 50 per cent of the employee share with interest in the EPF account for the marriage of self, son/daughter or brother/sister under certain conditions. The EPF subscriber must have completed 84 months of service to qualify for this type of advance from the account, according to the EPFO website. EPF members having completed five years of service can apply for an advance for purchase of a house/flat or construction of a house, under certain conditions.

The retirement fund body, EPFO, also allows a 100 per cent withdrawal - or full withdrawal - in case the subscriber is unemployed for two months.