Labor Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said the Labor Department has initiated a process to return unclaimed funds held in non-functioning Employees’ Provident Fund Organization accounts to subscribers, a move that is expected to benefit more than 3.1 million account holders.The pilot phase covering around 0.7 million subscribers will be launched soon after the decision is taken during the weekly review meeting chaired by the minister, according to an ET report.The EPFO currently has around 31.86 lakh non-functioning accounts holding deposits worth Rs 10,903 crore. Nearly 7.11 lakh of these accounts have unclaimed balances amounting to Rs 1,000, totaling Rs 30.52 crore.The ministry said many of the accounts were up to 20 years old and had not recorded any transactions in the past three years, leading to them being classified as non-operating.The accounts selected for the pilot phase already have Aadhaar-linked banking details available with EPFO, enabling the pension fund body to directly deposit the pending amounts to subscribers.Under the provisions of the EPF & MP Act, beneficiaries have to submit claims to withdraw their provident fund savings. However, the authorities have noted that in many cases the balance amount is very small compared to the required documents, leading to the accumulation of unclaimed deposits over time.
The scholarship system must be strengthened
Besides the payment initiative, the labor ministry said the educational assistance program for children of unorganized workers will now include a merit-based scholarship of up to Rs 25,000 in addition to the existing welfare-based support.“In order to promote fairness, remove unintended exceptions and ensure clarity of policy, the Ministry is amending the scheme guidelines to allow a student who benefits from the Ministry’s welfare-based scholarship to also obtain a merit-based scholarship from any central or state government agency, wherever eligible,” the Labor Ministry said in a statement.About 0.16 million students have so far received welfare-based financial assistance worth Rs 77.9 lakh crore this year, compared to 92,118 beneficiaries who received Rs 31.65 lakh crore in 2024-25, the ministry said.According to the ministry, the initiative is consistent with the Social Security Law of 2020, which seeks to expand social security and welfare measures, including education support, for unorganized workers and their families.
