Labour Secretary Sumita Dawra Chairs Review Meeting On EPFO Reforms

Labour & Employment Secretary Sumita Dawra has commended the recent steps of EPFO to automate the claim settlement and reduce the rejections of claims, an official statement said on Friday. Chairing a review meeting on EPFO reforms on Thursday, Dawra urged the officials to work in close coordination for an effective social security system. The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is in the process of revamping its application software with the Universal Account Number (UAN) based single accounting system for each member and automation of process flow with minimum human intervention for faster settlement of claims, it said.

The new software is being developed with the consultation of Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC). "The review meeting highlighted the need of the expansion of social security and new initiatives for ease of living and ease of business. The operational reforms in Litigation Management and Audit were also discussed during the meeting," the statement said.

About 25 lakh advance claims have been settled on auto mode. More than 50 per cent of the illness claims settled till now have been settled on auto mode. This has increased claims settlement speed and large number of them are now being settled within 3 days. The number of auto transfers generated has also increased threefold from 2 lakh in April 2024 to 6 lakh in May 2024, the statement said. The cheque book/passbook of bank account upload for the KYC Aadhaar linked accounts of members have been dispensed with, thus eliminating the scrutiny requirement in almost 13 lakh claims in last one month.

(PTI)