- By Talibuddin Khan
- Fri, 24 Feb 2023 12:22 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Employee Pension Scheme popularly known as EPS is a financial security plan introduced by EPFO in 1995. The scheme is designed to provide pensions to employees engaged in the organized sector after they reach the age of 58.
There are a lot of EPS-related queries these days, especially by those employees who have been working since 2014 or before as they may be wondering whether they are eligible to receive a higher pension from the Employees' Pension Scheme. This article is for those employees who are still not sure about their EPS membership on September 1, 2014.
A Supreme Court judgment held that an individual is eligible to apply for higher contributions if he/she was a member of the EPS as of September 1, 2014. Thus, if someone was actively making contributions to their EPS account till September 1, 2014, then it is very much likely that they are eligible to apply for a higher pension contribution.
Understanding EPS with the help of a real-life example:
Have you ever come across a separate section in your salary slip mentioning “Provident Fund” and you’re wondering what that is? So, that is part of your salary which is kept aside for your retirement. To make it simple, it is a part of EPS, where a chunk of your income is transferred to this scheme to help develop a corpus by the time you decide to retire.
The benefits are available for existing as well as new EPF members. However, what is important is that the employee should have worked for the organization for not less than ten years to receive the scheme's benefits. The employees and employers together contribute 12% of their base wages plus dearness allowance (DA) towards the EPF. While the employee’s contribution moves entirely to the EPF kitty, the employer contributes 8.33% to EPS.
How to check your EPS membership status?
To know the status, employees can go to EPFO's Member e-Sewa portal and check their service history. However, you have to ensure that the EPFO details are correct and updated. This is mainly because a Universal Account Number or UAN was introduced in 2014. The 12-digit UAN remains the same even when employees have changed jobs.
In case an individual had left an organisation before the introduction of UAN, the EPFO records would not be updated with the number of years he/she was in service and the UAN.
How to check an individual’s date of joining and service history on the EPFO portal?
Step 1: Visit the member e-Sewa portal. (Link - https://unifiedportal-mem.epfindia.gov.in/memberinterface/ )
Step 2: Login by filling in details including the Universal Account Number (UAN), password and captcha.
Step 3: Once you have logged in, click on the "View" option and choose the "Service history" option.
The 'Service history' option will present you with a list of the organisations where you have worked. Also, check the date of joining an organisation.
How to apply for a higher pension from EPS?
The EPFO floated two circulars recently providing guidelines on how eligible employees or pensioners can submit their applications to get the benefit of a higher pension.
An online facility has already been put in place where eligible pensioners can submit their documents and applications.
The end date to apply for the higher pension under the EPS is set as March 3, 2023.