New Delhi: The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has now extended it’s application deadline for the third time. Eligible members can now apply for higher pension till July 11. The repeated extensions come in the wake of a November 2022 Supreme Court verdict that was followed by delays in issue of appropriate clarification circulars.
This is the second extension of the deadline for applying for a higher pension. Earlier, it was extended from May 3, 2023, to June 26, 2023.
The last opportunity of 15 days is being given to remove any difficulty faced by the eligible pensioners/ members, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation said in a statement.
“Accordingly, the last date for submission of Applications for Validation of Option/ Joint Options by employees is extended to July 11, 2023,” it added.
“Online facility has been made available by EPFO for submitting Applications for Validation of Options/Joint Options for pension on higher wages. The facility is for eligible pensioners/members in compliance with the Hon’ble Supreme Court order dated November 04, 2022,” the statement said.
“Timeline for applying for higher pension has been extended by 3 months for the employer and 15 days for the employee (member),” Raghunathan KE, Member representing Employers, Central Board of Trustees, EPFO, told PTI.
Reports quoting sources had earlier indicated that there were more than 15 lakh applicants thus far. While some have been unable to submit their applications after making changes to their Aadhar cards (in turn linked to their EPF UAN), others are been left struggling with the joint option validation.
Earlier in May the timeline had been extended to facilitate and provide ample opportunity to the pensioners so as to ease out any difficulty being faced by them. The decision was taken after ‘sympathetically considering the various demands from employees, employers and their associations’.
Earlier in the day, EPFO ha also launched a calculator to help employees calculate higher EPS pension additional contribution ftom the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS).
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