EPFO administers three schemes EPF, EPS and EDLI. The same was already discussed a while back here. For claiming benefits in death cases the beneficiary had to fill up three different claim forms :
- Form 20 – EPF benefits
- Form 10D – Pension benefits
- Form 5IF – Insurance benefits
All the three claim forms required information and enclosures which were overlapping.Additionally it involved a substantial time in attestation by employers and processing by EPFO offices.
All this will undergo a substantial change with the introduction of “Composite Claim Form -Death Case .”
A Single claim form provides option of claiming death benefits by the beneficiary under the three schemes as applicable. Lets briefly discuss the benefits :
- Employees Provident Fund (EPF) benefits : Balance outstanding in the PF Account of a members along with interest accrued thereon.
- Employees Pension Scheme (EPS) benefits : Lifelong pension to 1 Widow/widower plus 2 Children upto the age of 25 years. In case the widow/er dies or remarries, 2 children will be eligible for orphan pension.
- Employees Deposit Linked Insurance (EDLI) benefits : Average 12 months wages drawn or period of employment(whichever is lesser) preceding death multiplied by 30 plus 50%. This is subject to a ceiling of 6 lakhs.
Some important points to note while filing claim :
- The claim is to correctly and completely filled in.
- Claim Form 10D cannot be processed without Aadhar or Enrolment ID being furnished. So ensure that the same is also enclosed along with the claim.
- It is also to be noted that even though the Aadhar, UAN, Bank account is seeded, still the claim is to be endorsed by the employer since the applicant is a claimant and not a member or pensioner.
- The enclosures are very important
- Original death certificate
- Joint Photograph of all claimants
- Date of birth certificate of children claiming pension
- Scheme Certificate in original (if applicable)
- Cancelled cheque or attested copy of first page of passbook
- Two problems that I envisage in the settlement of this single page death claim:
- No space for month wise NCP(Non Contributory Period) days that EPFO office wants for processing .
- No space for entering bank account details in case of children pension
However, the efforts taken by EPFO to simplify things is appreciated. Please pour in your thoughts, opinion and experience on this.
SimplifyPF 