EPFO reaches out to subscribers with unclaimed balance | India News
New Delhi: Employees’ Provident Fund is focusing on withdrawing unclaimed money lying in dormant accounts of customersAbout one-fourth of inactive accounts, which are Aadhaar verified, may soon be cleared of inactive balances as EPFO is working on developing an auto-settlement facility that will allow account holders to get unclaimed money in their bank accounts without filing for claims, an official told TOI. The facility will deal with around 8.1 lakh Aadhaar verified inactive accounts, amounting to Rs 5,200 crore, of which around 14,000 are over 5 lakh lying unclaimed. Another 38,000 Aadhaar-verified inactive accounts have Rs 1-5 lakh unclaimed, and 41,000 accounts have between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1 lakh. “In the last meeting, the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) has automatically disposed of such dormant accounts with balances of Rs 1,000 or less in registered bank accounts. Based on the learning from this project, a separate initiative is planned to design a strategy for other accounts. Members joining after October 2017 will be given official priority.” A dormant account in EPFO is one that has stopped earning interest and mainly belongs to members who have retired after the age of 55 and have made no contributions for three years. However, for those below 55 years of age, the account will continue to earn interest till the customer attains 58 years of age. As of February 2026, there were 31.8 lakh inactive accounts, of which Rs 10,181 crore were unclaimed. Of these, about 7 lakh accounts are 20 years old, while 1.8 lakh accounts are between 10-20 years. About 13 lakh inactive accounts are between 5-10 years old.
