The Employees Provident Fund Organization(EPFO) has come up with an AI-based fully automatic claim settlement system. This system has helped EPFO increase the speed of claim settlement.

The need for this system arose after the organization saw a substantial increase in the number of PF withdrawals amid the coronavirus pandemic. Operating with skeletal staff, the organization was overburdened with the number of settlement claims, as per the report.

Despite the shortage of manpower, EPFO brought down the EPF withdrawal claim settlement period from around 10 days to roughly 3 days for COVID-19 related withdrawals.

“Turning adversity into advantage, EPFO launched its first fully automatic claim settlement system in a record time of just five days. Almost 54 percent of the COVID 19 claims are now being settled through the auto mode,” EPFO said in a notification.

It added that the tool “is expected to drastically cut down claim settlement time for EPFO in future.”

According to the EPFO, with automation and a dedicated workforce, it is settling more than 80,000 claims every working day amounting to about Rs 270 crore. In April and May 2020, the EPFO settled 36.06 lakh claims amounting to Rs 11,540 crore, the retirement fund body stated. Out of this, 15.54 lakh claims, which amounted to Rs 4,580 crore, were related to the recently introduced COVID-19 advance under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY).

Automation is now helping EPFO to settle more than 80,000 claims worth ₹270 crores every day.

If the EPFO uses this AI tool to process other types of non-COVID related claims also, then claim settlement time will come down drastically in the future.

The AI tool processes claims of all eligible subscribers if they are fully e-KYC compliant.

EPFO manages social security funds of workers in the organized and semi-organized sector in India, and it has more than 6 crore active members.

Also, more than 74 percent of total claimants during the lockdown period belonged to a slab of less than Rs 15,000 wage. The high-income category with wages more than Rs 50,000 accounted for a mere 2 percent of the claimants. Approximately 24 percent of the claims were made by members with wages falling in the Rs 15,000 to less than Rs 50,000 category.
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.An individual who is a member of the EPF scheme can file this claim only one time. The amount credited to an individual’s bank account is non-refundable, i.e., he/she is not required to refund such an advance to the EPFO.
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.To file a withdrawal claim online, there are certain criteria that must be satisfied. These are: individual’s EPF account must be KYC-compliant, UAN must be active and linked to Aadhaar, and the bank account and IFSC code in the EPFO records must be correct.