EPFO: Just Over 18% out of 16.70 Crore UANs Received Contribution for All Months in FY21-22

Moneylife Digital Team 05 June 2023

During the financial year (FY)21-22, the employees' provident fund organisation (EPFO) had 167.0mn (million) members with the Aadhaar-validated universal account numbers (UAN). However, only 18.56% or 31.0mn members credited the employee-employer contribution for the entire year, reveals a reply received under the Right To Information (RTI) Act. It also means, only 31.0mn people had a regular job for the entire year. There were 64.3mn UANs, which received credit in their provident fund (PF) account at EPFO at least once in the year.

According to the information obtained by public policy enthusiast and entrepreneur Aakash Goel under RTI, as of 31 March 2022 (the latest information, since FY22-23 information is not yet ready), EPFO has 277.4mn member IDs. However, not all these member IDs have been assigned a UAN. Further, there are 15.9mn UANs with more than one member ID assigned.

There were 43.3mn UANs that have received monthly credit for employee-employer contributions for at least six months.

The data shared by EPFO in its dashboard shows that during FY22-23, it received 6.39mn claims from members. The highest number of claims,at 642K (thousand), were received during April, while the lowest number of claims, at 43.6mn, were filed in October 2022.

According to a release from the Union ministry of labour and employment, during FY22-23, around 13.9mn net members have been added by EPFO with an increase of 13.22% compared to FY21-22 when EPFO had added about 12.2mn net members.

"Out of 13.40 lakh members added during the month, around 7.58 lakh new members have come under the ambit of EPFO for the first time. Among the newly joined members, the highest enrolment is registered in the age group of 18-21 years, with 2.35 lakh members, followed by the age group of 22-25 years, with 1.94 lakh members. The age groups of 18-25 years constitute 56.60% of total new members added during the month. This age-wise comparison of payroll data indicates that the majority of the members joining the organised sector workforce of the country are first-time job seekers," the release from EPFO says.

The data from EPFO also highlights that about 1.0mn members rejoined their membership. These members switched jobs, re-joined the establishments covered under EPFO, and opted to transfer their accumulations instead of applying for final settlement, thus, extending their social security protection.

EPFO is India's principal organisation responsible for providing social security benefits to people working in the organised and semi-organised sectors.

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