EPF Alert! Changed your job in a hurry? You may not be able to transfer or withdraw your PF money unless you do this

Mohini (name changed) works in the media industry and after working for about three years in a company, she just hopped her job to another media company without giving proper resignation and without getting relieved from the previous company. As she didn’t leave her job in a proper manner, Monini couldn’t provide all the required information at the time of joining the new company and is now facing a problem with her EPF (Employees Provident Fund) Accounts.

One of the information required at the time of joining a new job was the UAN (Universal Account Number) that the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) provides to the members, and without this information, the new company created a new UAN for her, which she is unable to activate as a PAN holder is not allowed to operate more than one UANs.

As she left the job before her resignation got accepted, the employer didn’t put the date of exit from her previous EPF Account. According to rules, unless an employee exits an EPF account, he/she can neither transfer the balance to another EPF account, nor withdraw the full amount.

Moreover, with the contribution stopped, she is no longer a continued member for that EPF account and hence is not eligible of partial withdrawal is no longer a viable option for her.

On contacting the EPFO, the PRO there said, “She has to approach the previous employer to get her date of exit entered in the details of her previous EPF account.”

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Not only, transfer of withdrawal, she is even unable to view her EPF passbook as she is no longer using the mobile number provided in the previous EPF account and hence unable to get the OTP to log in. While trying to log in without OTP by providing personal details, the system disallows her to proceed, showing data mismatch as reason.

She also needs to approach the previous employer to get her data in EPF account corrected by filling a Joint Declaration Form.

With the previous employer not cooperating, Monini has no option to press them to get the joint declaration form signed and date of exit from her previous EPF account entered. She may however lodge a complaint with EPFO, in case the previous employer refused to sign the form and enter the date of exit.

So, to avoid such ordeal, it is always advised to give proper resignation, get it accepted and join another company after getting relieved from the existing company, even if the new employer insists you to join early without submitting resignation acceptance / relieving letter.