Universal Account Number - UAN

Employee Provident Fund(EPF) is a scheme for providing a monetary benefit to all salaried individuals after their retirement. It is one of the essential instruments for ensuring employees' financial safety and hence has paramount importance. 

The Employee Provident Fund (EPF) has now been digitized, and all EPF-related facilities are currently online. Therefore, it is necessary to have a UAN to make use of EPF information and services. 

What is UAN?

The Employees' Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) assigns a distinctive 12-digit number to each employee and employer who contributes to the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) scheme known as the Universal Account Number (UAN). 

Whenever an employee changes his/her job, EPFO assigns a new Member Identification Number or EPF Account (ID) connected to the UAN. The UAN serves as the umbrella for multiple Member Ids assigned to the employee by various employers to ease EPF transfers and withdrawals.

The UAN continues to be the same and transferrable throughout the life of the employee. 

How to Know Your UAN?

By Employer

Generally, as per EPFO, you are assigned a Universal Account Number by your boss. Some employers also print the UAN number in their payslips.

Use PF Number/Member ID via UAN Portal.

You may also obtain it via the UAN portal via the following steps:

Step 1: Go to the https://unified portal UAN portalmem.epfindia.gov.in/member interface/

Step 2: Click on the 'Know Your UAN Status' tab. 

Step 3: Pick your state and EPFO office from the drop-down menu and enter your PF number/member ID along with other information such as name, date of birth, mobile number, and captcha code. You will get your PF number/member ID from your salary slip. Click the 'Get Authorization Pin' tab.

Step 4: You will obtain a PIN on your cell phone number. Enter the PIN and press the 'Validate OTP' button.

Step 5: Your Universal Account number will be forwarded to your mobile number.

How Can You Generate Your UAN?

You may generate it in the following way:

Step 1: Go to the UAN Member Portal.

Step 2: Click on the online Aadhar card verified UAN allotment link at the page's bottom right.

Step 3: Enter your Aadhar card number and wait for the OTP to be created and sent to your registered mobile number.

Step 4: Enter the OTP and wait for the system to retrieve your information from the Aadhar database and auto-populate the appropriate fields.

Step 5: Press next to get UAN. You will receive the UAN via an SMS.

How to Login to Your EPFO Website and Enable the UAN?

You must have your Universal Account Number and PF Member ID with you to enable UAN. Below are the steps to enable UAN on the EPFO portal:

Step 1: Go to the EPFO homepage and press 'For Workers' on the dashboard under 'Our Services.'

Step 2: Click on 'UAN Member/Online Services' in the Services section. You're going to enter the UAN portal.

Step 3: Enter your universal account number, your mobile number, and your PF member ID. Enter the characters of the captcha. Click the 'Get PIN Authorization' button. You'll get a PIN on your registered mobile number.

Click on 'I accept' in the Disclaimer checkbox and enter the OTP you get on your mobile and click on 'Validate OTP and Trigger UAN.'

Step 4: UAN activation will give you a password on your registered mobile number to access your account.

What are the Key Features & Benefits of the UAN?

The following are the features and benefits of the UAN:

1. The UAN helps to centralize the data of employees in the region.
2. One of the most critical applications of UAN is eliminating the burden of verification of workers by employers.
3. It helps EPFO extract the bank account details and the KYC of the employee without employers' help.
4. It is useful for EPFO to monitor multiple employee work switches.
5. With the introduction of the UAN, early and untimely withdrawals of the EPF have decreased dramatically.

What are the Advantages of the UAN for Employees?

UAN is very beneficial for the employees as:

1. It makes it easier to withdraw (full or partial) PF online.
2. Employees can themselves switch PF balances from old to new using UAN.
3. Whenever you want a PF statement (visa intent, loan protection, etc.), you can download it instantly.
4. UAN guarantees that employers are unable to access or withhold PF money from their workers.

How Easy is It to Manage Your EPF Using the UAN?

Using the UAN, employees can conduct many EPF-related services online with little time and effort, suchservices such as EPF withdrawal, EPF transfer from one account to another, review the EPF account statement, access to theaccess the EPF account passbook, and apply for a loan against the EPF. Thus, UAN makes it very easy to manage EPF.

What are the Documents Required to Open UAN?

You need the following documents to get your UAN:

1. Bank account information
2. ID proof
3. Address proof
4. PAN card
5. Aadhaar card
6. ESCIC Card

Conclusion

UAN is a 12 digit number provided by the EPFO to every employee. It makes managing the EPF very easy and quick through the online medium. Not only is it beneficial for the employer but also the employee. 

You can quickly generate UAN and perform many EPFO related services online via the EPFO portal. No doubt it is making the management of provident funds more effortless than ever.