The Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) has launched a multi-location claim settlement facility for speedy settlement of various claims. The Ministry of Labor said in a statement that under the new system, the existing system of geographical jurisdiction for claim settlement has been changed. Under the new arrangement, payment of any claim from anywhere and from any regional office of EPFO will be done. The statement said that under this new initiative, all types of online applications related to provident fund, pension fund, partial withdrawal and other claims and claim transfer will now be processed from anywhere. This will reduce the time taken for payment of claims, which will provide greater comfort to the account holders.
The ministry said in its statement that due to COVID-19 epidemic, many offices in Mumbai, Thane, Haryana and Chennai regions are working with limited staff while the number of claims has increased drastically. This has greatly increased the number of pending claims in these offices, due to which their settlement is being delayed. In such a situation, delay will be reduced by sharing the work related to claim disposal equally in all offices. Due to these reasons, the existing system of geographical jurisdiction has been changed, which will be quite convenient.