Pensioners numbering 56,878 out of a total of 12,05,92 who were getting small amounts of pension from the Regional Office of Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) here would now get pension of Rs 1,000 monthly while many of them were getting much less than Rs 500 earlier.
Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan launched the scheme here on Tuesday. The wage ceiling of the social security schemes of the EPFO has been raised from Rs 6,500 to Rs 15,000 per month. The initiative is expected to bring 50 lakh new employees under the social security umbrella. The maximum benefit admissible under Employees’ Deposit linked Insurance Scheme (EDlI) has also been increased from the earlier Rs 1,30,000 to Rs 3,60,000 almost three fold, said the Minister.
Meanwhile, the EPFO has already allocated 4.17 crore Universal Accounts Number (UAN) to various employees while the bank account details in respect of two crore employees have already been captured. Bhubaneswar Regional Provident Fund Commissioner (RPFC) SK Nayak informed that around 87,911 claims have been settled by the EPFO offices in the State during the current year and 1,062 grievances were received and every complaint was disposed of in 15 days’ time.
The RPFC also informed about the new initiatives that EPFO has adopted like online transfer claim portal (OTCP), online registration of establishments (OlRE), internet banking facility for employers, members passbook (E-Passbook), e-payment of benefits to beneficiaries and provision of UAN. On the occasion, some pensioners were felicitated.