EPF Form 31 - Partial PF Withdrawal Online & Offline (2024)

EPF Form 31 is utilised to file a claim for partial withdrawal of funds from EPF or Employees’ Provident Fund. EPF or Employees’ Provident Fund is a government-backed savings option that can facilitate salaried individuals to build a significant corpus to cover their financial needs post-retirement.

In this particular kind of provident fund, employees are required to contribute a portion of their basic pay (12%) each month. Next, the employer contributes a matching amount to this fund. These contributions pooled together, with applicable government interest generates the corpus for employees.

Individuals can also choose to withdraw from the saved amount in their EPF during their employment period, to cover any emergency expenses that might arise in due course.

When Can EPF Funds be Withdrawn?

Individuals can make use of EPF withdrawal Form 31 to withdraw their EPF funds partially or in full only under certain circ*mstances. An individual can withdraw their entire savings amount from the EPF only under the following circ*mstances –

• When he/she retires from employment.
• When an individual is unemployed for more than 2 months, however, in this case, the fact that this person is unemployed for more than 2 months has to be certified by a gazetted officer.

Unless individuals satisfy the above criteria, it is against Provident Fund rules and regulations to withdraw the entire fund amount from EPF. If the individual wishes to withdraw funds partially from EPF, they will need to fulfill a few prescribed conditions and can only do so under special circ*mstances.

The table below illustrates the circ*mstances and conditions under which an individual is eligible to make a partial withdrawal from EPF by using EPF Form 31.

Individuals can apply for premature withdrawal from their EPF account, under the circ*mstances mentioned above, both online and offline.

How to Download EPF Form 31

Form 31 can be found on the EPF website. The process is as follows-

Step 1: On the EPFO member portal, the member must log in with his or her UAN and password.

Step 2: To generate an online request, the member must first navigate to the ‘Online Services’ menu and then pick ‘Claim.’

Step 3: When you click to claim, a new page will appear with all of the member’s information, including name, date of birth, father’s name, PAN number, Aadhaar number, date of joining the firm, and cellphone number. After verifying that all of the information is valid, the member can select ‘Proceed for Online Claim’.

Step 4: The sort of claim the member wishes to apply for will be displayed on the next page. In the drop-down option, choose ‘PF ADVANCE (FORM 31).’

Step 5: The member must decide on the purpose of the advance. In the drop-down box, you will see alternatives such as illness, natural disasters, power outage, non-receipt of earnings, and purchase of disability equipment. In the following form, enter the amount and his or her current address.

Step 6: After completing this, the member must sign the disclosure. When you check the box, the ‘Get Aadhaar OTP’ button will appear. When he or she clicks that, he or she will receive the OTP, which must be authenticated. The member will complete the process for the online EPF advance application by entering the OTP and clicking on ‘Validate OTP and Submit Claim Form.’

The Procedure of Filing for Withdrawal through EPF Form 31

To withdraw funds from their EPF, individuals can choose to follow either one of the following two procedures –

1. They can submit a physical application by downloading Form 31, as mentioned above.
2. They can submit the PF advance Form 31 online and make an application.

Submission of Physical Application Through Form 31

For physical submission, individuals can download Form 31 in EPFO from the government’s official website and fill up the required details and submit it to their respective jurisdictional EPFO office after getting it attested from their employer.

Following are a few requisite details required to be filled by the employee in the EPF Form 31 –

• Contact information.
• Purpose of advance withdrawal.
• Amount of required advance.
• Identity details.
• PF account number.
• Monthly basic pay details plus dearness allowance.
• Mode of remittance.
• Bank account details, etc.

The employer, in turn, needs to fill in the following details in case of offline submission of withdrawal form –

• Certification.
• Designation, date and signature.
• Enclosures.

Further, the EPF commissioner will need to submit the following requisite details –

• Account number.
• Section.
• Amount to be reimbursed.
• Mode of remittance.
• The officer’s signature.

Submission of Online Application for Withdrawal from EPF

With the newly introduced EPF form 31 online submission process under EPFO, filing a withdrawal claim from EPF has become significantly simpler.

However, to apply for fund withdrawal via the EPF Portal, individuals must ensure that they comply with the following criteria –

• Their UAN or Universal Account Number is active, and the mobile number linked to it is functional.
• The UAN is linked to their KYC documents, including Aadhaar, PAN card and other requisite details.

After meeting the conditions above, individuals need to follow the steps below to submit their EPF Form 31 online –

Step 1: Log in to the UAN portal through the official government website.

Step 2: Check if the required KYC details are updated and verified.

Step 3: Once the KYC details are verified, visit the “online service” tab and choose claim Form 31.

Step 4: Next, Fill in details like KYC, service details, etc. and complete the verification on the “claim” screen.

Step 5: Accept the certificate of undertaking to proceed.

Step 6: “Proceed for online claim” and select the PF withdrawal option.

Step 7: Select the “PF Advance form” and provide details like the purpose of withdrawal, the amount required and other necessary details.

Step 8: Next, they will have to apply by clicking on the “submit” button.

After applying, individuals may have to wait for their employer to approve this request and then subsequently find the fund credited to their bank account. Also, to make inquiries about the status of their claim, individuals can refer to the EPF Form 31 claim status from the official EPFO website.