The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has put out a new set of guidelines for employees and pensioners for higher pension. The new guidelines set the procedures and required documents for existing employees and those who have retired after September 1, 2014 to opt for higher pension based on actual salary beyond the earlier prescribed range under Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS) of 1995.
Read also: EPFO’s higher pension scheme: What’s in it for you?
What does the new EPFO guideline bring?
. The new guidelines opens the window for employees to deduct a sum equal to 8.33% of the actual basic salary (Basic pay+ DA) towards the EPS, helping to accumulate larger corpus and receive a higher pension amount.
Currently, the EPS contribution from employees is capped at the maximum ₹15,000 for pensionable salary.
New pension form
To avail the new listed benefit, employees’ need to jointly apply with their employer in the new pension form prescribed by the EPFO commissioner, along with all other required documents like joint declaration.
The EPFO also states that all the applications will have to be digitally uploaded, for which a separate URL will be provided by the organization. An email and a SMS will be sent to the applicant informing about their switch.
Further details will be given by the Regional PF Commissioners soon.
In any case of grievances , employees or employers can raise a ticket on the EPFiGMS (grievance portal) post the joint form submission, and payment of due contributions (if any).
Who can avail the benefits?
As per the latest EPFO mandate, the employees meeting these criterion can avail such benefits:
- Employees who were members before September 1, 2014, and continued to be a member on or after the said date.
- Employees and employers who contributed on salary exceeding the wage ceiling of ₹5,000 or ₹6,500.
- Employees and employers who did not opt for the joint option in the previous window while being EPS members.
In addition to the above information, EPFO said that it will also issue separate circular listing the method of deposit and computation of pension.