If you have recently started working and have received your first paycheck, you would have noticed a deduction under the head Provident Fund. It is a fund run by the Government of India to which both the employee and the employer contribute 12% of the monthly basic salary of the employee each month.
While the entire contribution of the employee goes to Provident Fund, which they get at the retirement along with the interest earned, a part of Employer’s contribution goes to the Pension fund, which is used to provide monthly pension to the employee after retirement.
If I Can’t Use This Amount Right Away What’s The Use Of Checking PF Balance?
Though you may not use this amount right away, you should still keep a track of your provident fund for the following main reasons:
Reason 1. To keep a track of the amount you have saved for retirement
Tips for Managing your Personal Finance – Part 1
Tips for Managing your Personal Finance – Part 2
Reason 2. To check if your employer is depositing the PF amount on a regular basis
Reason 3. To check if you are getting the interest on your PF fund on time (interest is earned at the end of the Financial Year)
Reason 4. You may want to take a loan against your PF and so would want to know your current balance
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So How Can I Find My PF Balance?
A few years ago this used to be a difficult task, but not anymore. You now have four different methods to find your PF balance quickly – two of which are offline methods and two are online.
But before we start, keep your UAN (Universal Account Number) handy, as you will need it. In case you do not have it, we have explained how to obtain Universal Account Number in this article.
Note that for this to work, your UAN should be active and linked to Aadhar, PAN and bank account. In most of the cases, UAN is by default linked to your Aadhar, PAN and bank account because your employer does that. If, however, that’s not the case, login to UAN portal, go to the ‘Manage’ section and fill the KYC details.
Find PF Balance By Sending An SMS (Offline Method)
Send an SMS to 7738-299-899 from the mobile number registered with EPFO in the following format:
EPFOHO <YOUR UAN NUMBER> <FIRST THREE LETTERS OF THE PREFERRED LANGUAGE>
e.g., if your UAN is 123456789 and you want to receive the SMS in English, you need to send the following SMS to 7738-299-899:
EPFOHO 123456789 ENG
Currently, the service is available in the following languages:
- English
- Hindi
- Gujarati
- Punjabi
- Marathi
- Kannada
- Malayalam
- Tamil
- Telugu
- Bengali
You will get one message for each organization that you have worked in. The message contains the last contribution made towards your PF account by your employer and the total balance.
The last contribution and total balance contain your’s as well as your employer’s contribution. So, if Rs 5,000/- is deducted towards PF from your paycheck, you will see the total contribution in the SMS to be a little less than 10,000/-. We’ll come to the reason for it not being exactly 10,000/- in a bit.
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Currently, it is not possible to get the cumulative balance across all the organizations you have worked at. Ideally, you should have transferred all your old PF accounts to your current account, so this should not be a problem, but if you haven’t then you will have to add the individual balances to get the total balance.
Find PF Balance By Giving A Missed Call (Offline Method)
If you are feeling lazy to send the SMS, you can just give a missed call to 011-22901406 from the mobile number registered with EPFO. Within minutes you will receive an SMS with your PF balance.
Like in the previous case, here also you will get the SMS in the same format and one message per PF account that you have.
In case your number is not registered with EPFO, you will not be able to make use of missed call and SMS service. Follow the steps here to update your number with EPFO within minutes.
Find PF Balance Through Mobile App (Online Method)
You can get your PF balance using UMANG app too.
UMANG, which stands for Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance, was launched by the Indian Government to provide access to a range of central, state and local government services on a single platform.
Step 1: Download the UMANG app on Android or iOS.
If you are a first time user, register using your mobile number and then login to the app.
Step 2: After logging in search for EPFO and click on it.
Step 3: Click on the “Employee Centric Services”
Step 4: Click on “View Passbook”. You will have to enter your UAN and click on ‘Get OTP‘ to receive the OTP on the registered mobile number. Enter the OTP and click on “Login”
Step 5: Select the member ID of the company for which you want to check the PF balance
Step 6: Your passbook will be displayed on the screen showing your PF and EPS balance
Find PF Balance Through UAN Website (Online Method)
You can also check the balance on EPFO’s website.
Go to https://passbook.epfindia.gov.in/MemberPassBook/Login.jsp and login using your UAN and password.
You will see all your PF accounts listed in the left pane – even those that you have already transferred.
Click on any PF account to see the passbook and available balance for that.
While the first two methods (sms and missed call) provides the balance in your Provident Fund, using the app and website you can also see the balance in your Pension Fund (as shown in the image above).
Using the above four methods you can see your PF balance anytime and also see if your employer is submitting your PF contribution to the fund in a timely manner.
Now that you know your PF balance you should make sure to add a nominee to your PF account. This article will help you with the process of doing that online.
Check this list of other articles before you leave.
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