EPF Inoperative Account: According to the data released by EPFO, a total of 21.55 lakh accounts were inoperative till March 2024 this year. Rs 8505.23 crore is deposited in these accounts. In the last five years, the number of inactive accounts has seen a boom. If your EPF account has also become inactive, then you can get it activated again. Let us know its process in this article.
EPF Inoperative Account: The Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) recently released the data of EPFO’s inoperative account (Inoperative EPF Account). According to this data, 21.55 lakh accounts were inoperative in EPFO till March 2024. This means that the owner of these accounts did not claim for withdrawal. A total of Rs 8505.23 crore is deposited in these accounts.
In such a situation, the question arises that when does an account become inactive and if the account is inactive, then how to activate it again. We will answer all these questions to you.
When is the account considered inactive
According to the rules of EPFO, if no amount is deposited in the EPF account for three consecutive years, then it is considered inoperative. Apart from this, when the age of the EPFO member reaches 58 years, then also the account is considered inoperative.
According to the data of EPFO, in the last five years, there has been a rapid increase in the number of inactive accounts of EPFO. In the financial year 2018-19, the number of inoperative accounts of EPFO was 6.91 lakh. This data clearly shows that the number of inoperative accounts of EPFO is increasing continuously.
What to do with inoperative account?
According to EPFO, closed or inoperative accounts can be restarted. Once the account is activated, the member gets access to the amount deposited in the account. Now the question arises, how to activate the account again? To activate the account, you have to go to the office of EPFO. By going here, you have to apply to activate the account. After getting the UAN number, your inoperative account will be activated again. However, the account will be fully active only after the KYC process is completed.
UAN not linked to EPF account
Many times the UAN number is not linked to the EPF account. In this case also you will have to go to the EPFO office. Here you will have to apply to link the AN number with the account. However, for this also you will have to get your e-KYC done. Once the e-KYC and UAN number are linked to the account, you will get access to the amount deposited in the account. After this access, you can also claim for withdrawal.
