UAN Unified Portal for EPF Members / Employees
EPFO has recently launched a new portal for EPF called unifiedPortal. This portal for members / employees was launched in Dec, 2016 and after few weeks of down time, it has now started working fine. We used the 'Download Passbook' feature on 20th January 2017 to check the current EPF balance, and the unifiedportal worked just fine. Here is a detailed guide on unified portal and its features.
Why a new Unified EPF Portal?
EPFO has been working to improve its digital footprint and online services revamp has been a crucial part of that effort. As part of changes introduced in Dec 2016 and Jan 2017:
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UAN number has now become compulsory and an employer can't deposit epf amount for an employee without his/her UAN number
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For EPS (pension) portion of EPF contribution, it has now become mandatory to link Aadhaar number with your UAN
Ideally it would have been better to improve and update the old UAN portal itself, but EPFO IT services has instead created a new portal itself called unified portal (or unifiedportal).
EPF UnifiedPortal - Login
Open the EPFO unifiedportal website - https://unifiedportal-mem.epfindia.gov.in/memberinterface/. The first thing you will notice on opening the Unified Portal is its clean interface.
To UAN Login into the unified portal, enter your UAN and password. You can use the same password that you used earlier for login into the old UAN Member Portal. If the old password in not working for some reasons, you can click on the 'Forgot Password' link and change password. If you keep trying a password that isn't working, your account will be locked. If that happens, you can click on 'Unlock Account'. The page will ask you to enter your UAN and a captcha. You will get a authorization pin on your mobile which you will have to enter to unlock the account.
After password, you need to enter the captcha and then click on 'Sign in'. You will see your home page with your UAN and name displayed on the top right corner.
UAN Unified Portal - Home Page Features
Once you login and enter your home page you will see three main sections highlighted on the page - 'View Passbook', 'UAN Card' and 'Account Settings'. Clicking on 'more info' will take you to the appropriate page. On the right side you will see your full profile - UAN, name, birth date, mobile number and email.
This new unified portal has limited features as of now. We are expecting that EPFO will add more features in the coming months. On epf unified portal you have right now only 5 main features -
- View / Print your Updated Passbook.
- Download / Print your UAN Card.
- Update your contact details and KYC information.
- Activate your UAN
- Know your UAN status
EPFO UnifiedPortal - Glitches and Errors
We see occasional errors on the portal, for example
"[object Object] parsererrorSyntaxError: Unexpected token & in JSON at position 3"
503 Service Unavailable - No server is available to handle this request.
Service Unavailable - Please try again later.
Unified portal error - Details of previous account are different than present account
While doing online epf transfer on unified portal, sometimes people get following error:
Details of previous account are different than present account. Hence claim request cannot be processed
This happens due to differences in personal details like date of birth. One need to contact local epfo office and give application to get it corrected. or one can email employeefeedback@epfindia.gov.in to get help.
Unified portal error - claim is not submitted on portal. Plz try again later
While submitting online form 19, sometimes user see this error:
Claim is not submitted on portal. Plz try again later.
This is due to technical problem with the portal. Known solution is to try again after 1 or 2 days.
Unified portal error: Aadhaar authentication failed
While linking Aadhaar with EPF, many times we see following error:
Aadhaar authentication failed
This is due to technical problem with communication between unified portal and Aadhaar system. Known solution is to try again after 1 or 2 days.
News on EPF UnifiedPortal
Paperless EPF by next year
EPFO has decided to become completely digital and paperless by Aug 2018. This will boost its services and make withdrawal and pension simpler.
Passbook new site
Currently passbook functionality is not available at UAN portal. One needs to go to [https://passbook.epfindia.gov.in/MemberPassBook/Login.jsp](https://passbook.epfindia.gov.in/MemberPassBook/Login.jsp) to get their passbook.
8.65% interest rate on EPF for 2016-2017
Finance ministry has declared an interest of 8.65% for EPF for the duration of Apr 1, 2016 to Mar 31st 2017. Lately finance ministry was trying to convince EPFO to reduce the rate, but finanlly let the december decided rate of 8.65% to continue.
Unified Portal Remains Down as of Mar 14th, 2017
Due to technical problems, Unified portal for members remains down most of the time as of March 14, 2017. EPFO technical team is aware of this and working hard to resolve this.
EPF Withdrawal process got simplified with 1 page form
EPF Withdrawal process got simplified with 1 page form called CCF form or Composite Claim form. If your EPF account is UAN activated and have Aadhaar linked, you don't even need employer's attestation. Really good news for EPF members.
Link Aadhar Number on EPF Unified Portal
EPFO has made it mandatory to link Aadhar Card with UAN number for all the members and pensioners. You can link your Aadhaar number online on the new UAN Unified Portal in the KYC section. If you don't have a Aadhar number yet, it is recommended to get one soon. EPFO is planning to develop facility on UAN Portal for registering of request by members/pensioners for enrolment of Aadhar.
EPFO Unified Portal is up!
EPFO had launched the Unified Portal in Dec, 2016 but it was not working properly and throwing errors in the initial days after launch. People faced a lot of difficulty in using the Unified Portal as it was mostly down. Good news is that the EPF Unified Portal is finally working fine now after about 3 weeks of glitches and errors. Cheers!