As per the government-backed scheme Employee Provident Fund, also known as the Provident Fund, 10% of the basic pay salary of salaried employees is compulsorily deducted every month.
This amount deducted from the salaries of employees and employers each month, is contributed to the ??Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
In general practice, the total amount accumulated in the EPF account, or even a partial sum cannot be withdrawn until the employee either resigns or retires.
However, given the monetary urgency people are now facing due to the pandemic, the EPFO has given a green signal to debit a part of the accumulated sum to people facing such urgent crises.
Employees can Now Withdraw Money from PF
Salaried employees are subjected to monthly deduction of 10% of their basic pay, accumulated in their Employee Provident Fund.
Earlier, this percentage was 12% for private organisations.
The EPF organisation has now allowed such employees to withdraw a sum of their accumulated PFs in times of need, given the medical monetary assistance during pandemic.
Up until now, employees could only get hold of this sum on retiring or resigning.
Employees can Withdraw Upto Rs 1 Lakh
According to an Office Memorandum released by the EPFO, details regarding employees being able to avail an instant advance of Rs 1 Lakh has been documented.
A lump sum medical advance up to Rs 1 lakh can easily be granted by the authority with a relaxation on the formality or documents required, states the memorandum.
As per the OM, the procedure of getting an estimate for granting medical advance in cases of hospitalisation on account of serious life-threatening illnesses, including Covid, has been revisited, adds a wire feed.
“In life-threatening diseases, many times it becomes imperative to get the patient immediately admitted to hospital on emergency to save his/her life and it is not possible to get the estimate from the hospital in such situations. A need is felt for streamlining the advanced facility for such serious in-patient treatment in hospital wherever family members of employees are not able to manage estimate from the hospital concerned in which such patient has been admitted in an emergency,” said the EPFO.
In cases where a patient (employee) is in the ICU and there is no estimate on the advance, the following procedure must be followed, to grant medical advance for emergency hospitalisation on account of serious life-threatening illnesses.
These include the patient being admitted due to Covid at a Government/PSU/CGHS hospital. In case the patient is admitted in a private hospital, the relaxation in medical bill reimbursement will be given, only if the competent authority considers it a fit case to do so.
A request letter is submitted by the employee or any of the family members of the patient for providing medical advance without an estimate along with details of the hospital and the patient.
A lump sum medical advance of up to Rs 1 lakh can be granted as the medical advance, preferably on the same day if it is a working day, or the next day from receiving the receipt of application of advance.
As per the rules, if the entitlement of medical advance crosses Rs 1 lakh, then an additional advance will be sanctioned equivalent advance entitled as per rules reduced by one lakh already granted.
This advance will either be credited to the salary of the account holder or will be paid to the Hospital concerned directly as per the request of the family member of the employee.
After discharge from the hospital, the employee should submit the bill within 45 days from the date of discharge.
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