Your PF May Not Be Earning Interest. How to Find

Have you claimed provident fund money from all the organisations you worked? There is a good chance that you might have forgotten about an account where you had worked only for a brief period.

You would be surprised to know that a whopping Rs 27,500 crore of provident fund money is lying with Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) in inoperative accounts, as of March 2014. Provident fund accounts which fail to make contributions for 36 continuous months to the retirement fund body are classified as inoperative accounts. And interest is not credited to these accounts from the date on which they turn inoperative. The EPFO had stopped crediting interest in the inoperative account from April 1, 2011.

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Now, the retirement fund body has launched a special drive so that PF account holders can claim for withdrawal or transfer provident fund money lying in inoperative accounts.

EPFO has come up with a helpdesk on its website to enable members to trace out their old accounts marked as inoperative. This web-facility is currently in a testing phase and full-fledged services could be launched next week, Central Provident Fund Commissioner KK Jalan told NDTV.

EPFO has received 3,500-4000 requests from members who have sought help in tracing their provident fund accounts despite the facility being in testing phase, Mr Jalan said.

The web helpdesk is meant to help EFPO members trace out their provident fund numbers or find the total fund accumulated, Mr Jalan said. Many subscribers don't remember their provident details so this helpdesk is meant to trace them out, he added.

Subscribers are meant to fill in some details like company name, year of working etc so that the helpdesk can assist in finding other details.

If the details are traced, then the helpdesk will guide the subscribers for transferring the amount lying in inoperative account to their existing accounts, Mr Jalan said. The subscribers can also withdraw money from the inoperative accounts by filling the claim form. EPFO has a web facility which helps users to transfer their old account dues to existing accounts.