Union Labour & Employment Minister Shri Sis Ram Ola has emphasized that the Employee Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) must give priority to timely settlement of claims for provident fund. In a meeting with the senior officers of EPFO the minister has also emphasized that due to improvement and availability of technology, the citizen rightly expects efficient and transparent mechanism in its settlement of claims. EPFO has a mandate to settle all the claims within 30 days of its receipt.
It was brought to the notice of the Minister that the Employee Provident Fund Organization receives receives on an average 12.74 lakh applications for settlement every month. It is expected during the current financial year, 152.87 lakh claim settlements will be received. Due to consistent monitoring the number of claims pending for settlement beyond 30 days has reduced from 12,702 as on 03-07-2013 to only 5268 as on 26-07-2013. Efforts are being made even to bring down this number.
EPFO has reported that on 03-07-2013, out of 120 offices of EPFO, 60% of claims were settled within 3 days of its receipt in as many as 20 offices. This month 3 new offices have also started processing more than 60% of the claims settled within 3 days. 3 new offices which could achieve this milestone are EPFO offices at Mysore Road, Surat & Bharuch.
Accordingly, Shri Ola noted with satisfaction that the pace of settlement of claims has increased by more than 10% in as many as 27 of the offices.
Minister has also appreciated that in some of the offices, each staff is settling more than 20 claims per day. The offices at Noida & Gurgaon Top the list of the efficiency in terms of No. of disposal per staff. In each of these offices, 27 claims are being settled by each staff every day. Settlement of claim is one of the many responsibilities with the staff of EPFO.
