New Delhi, April 9 (IANS) The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) on Wednesday said its members can now generate a Universal Account Number (UAN) and activate it using Aadhaar Face Authentication Technology (FAT) through the UMANG mobile app.
The contactless and secure service marks a major leap in providing hassle-free and fully digital experiences to crores of EPFO members.
Earlier, UANs were largely generated by employers using employee data submitted to the EPFO.
While Aadhaar details were validated, inaccuracies in fields such as father’s name, mobile number, or date of birth were common, according to the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
These errors often required corrections during claim processing or while accessing other EPFO services.
In the financial year 2024-25 alone, out of 1.26 crore UANs allotted, only 44.68 lakh (35.30 per cent) were activated by members.
“Several reminders were given to employers to get employees to activate their UAN using Aadhaar OTP so that in future any benefit under the Employment Linked Scheme could be potentially provided using direct benefit transfer (DBT),” according to the EPFO.
In many cases, the UAN was not even communicated to the employee, and mobile numbers were missing or incorrect, making direct communication difficult. Furthermore, UAN activation through Aadhaar OTP validation on the EPFO Member portal was a separate process to be completed by the member, causing confusion.
To address these challenges, the EPFO has now enabled direct UAN generation and activation using Face Authentication via the UMANG App.
This service can be used by both employees and employers. It offers 100 per cent validation of Aadhaar and user using Face Authentication and data of user is pre-populated directly from Aadhaar database.
According to the EPFO, the mobile number of the user is matched with the mobile registered with Aadhaar, and UAN activation on EPFO portal simultaneously completed during generation process.
At the time of employment, an employee can hand copy of the e-UAN card PDF and UAN to the employer for onboarding with the EPFO. Access to EPFO services such as passbook viewing, KYC updates, claim submission, and more is immediately unlocked.
Last week, the government announced two key reforms in the EPFO claim settlement process. The EPFO dispensed with the requirement of uploading an image of a cheque leaf or attested bank passbook while filing online claims, which would benefit over 7.7 crore members.
The EPFO also removed the requirement of employer approval after bank verification.
–IANS
na/vd
Disclaimer
The information contained in this website is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by BhaskarLive.in and while we endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this website.
Through this website you are able to link to other websites which are not under the control of BhaskarLive.in We have no control over the nature, content and availability of those sites. The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.
Every effort is made to keep the website up and running smoothly. However, BhaskarLive.in takes no responsibility for, and will not be liable for, the website being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond our control.
For any legal details or query please visit original source link given with news or click on Go to Source.
Our translation service aims to offer the most accurate translation possible and we rarely experience any issues with news post. However, as the translation is carried out by third part tool there is a possibility for error to cause the occasional inaccuracy. We therefore require you to accept this disclaimer before confirming any translation news with us.
If you are not willing to accept this disclaimer then we recommend reading news post in its original language.
