The Ministry of Labour and Employment of the government of India govern the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). The Employee Provident Fund (EPF) was introduced with the idea to promote savings for retirement. A calculated portion of salary withdrawn is contributed by the employee and employer towards the employee’s EPF account every month. This cumulates to a large sum over the years. EPFO offers an interest rate of 8.5% p.a. for the funds in the EPF account thereby benefitting the employee.
Any individual with an EPF account can check the balance of his/her account anytime. Here are the methods to check PF balance online –
Use EPFO portal
These steps can be followed to check PF balance online using EPFO portal.
Step 1 – Visit the official website of EPFO and login to your EPF account using this link –
Step 2 – Under ‘Services’ tab, click on ‘For employees’.
Step 3 – In the new page that appears, under ‘Services’ column, click on ‘member passbook’.
Step 4 – In the login page that appears, enter UAN in the username, password of the UAN account. Enter captcha code for verification and click on ‘login’ button.
Step 5 – Updated passbook of the PF account will be generated and the balance can be viewed in it.
Use United Mobile App for New age Governance (UMANG)
UMANG app should be downloaded on the mobile phone. EPFO member should register on the UMANG app using the registered mobile number on UAN. It is a one-time registration process post which the app can be used. Check your PF balance using UMANG app using these steps.
Step 1 – Click on ‘EPFO’ option on the home screen.
Step 2 – Select the option ‘Employee Centric Services’.
Step 3 – On the screen that follows, click on ‘View Passbook’. The user is authenticated at this stage. Enter your UAN and an OTP will be generated to your registered mobile number. Enter the OTP and the updated passbook of your PF account will be displayed with the balance.
SMS to EPFO
After UAN of an EPF account is activated and a mobile number of the member is registered on the UAN, SMS facility can be used to check balance. Also, it is mandatory to link Aadhar card, PAN card and bank details of the employee to the EPF account for the member to use SMS facility.
EPFO has made this available in 10 languages – English, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Marathi, Gujrati, Punjabi, Kannada and Malayalam. SMS to be sent is ‘EPFOHO UAN ENG’ to 7738299899. To receive SMS in any of the other languages mentioned above, the SMS details will be ‘EPFOHO UAN TEL’ to get PF balance in Telugu.
Missed call to EPFO
If an employee has activated UAN on his/her PF account, linked Aadhar card, PAN card and bank details, the employee can utilize missed call facility. Using the registered mobile number on the PF account, the employee can give a missed call to 011-22901406. An SMS will be sent to the registered mobile number mentioning the PF balance on the account.
Checking PF balance for PF accounts that are inactive
For EPF members who are currently unemployed or hold multiple PF accounts due to change in employment, can also check their updated balance on their PF accounts using any of the methods mentioned above. As per the announcement by EPFO in November 2016, EPFO will continue to pay an interest rate of 8.5% p.a. for inactive PF accounts. Since the interest amount compounds in PF accounts, one can check the most recent balance on it.
For individuals holding more than one PF account, a request can be raised by the individual to the EPFO to transfer funds from the previous EPF account(s) to the current EPF account. This holds several benefits. You can read all about them here – How to file transfer claim online for your Provident Fund?