How much time limit do eligible employees have to give consent for deposit, divert money for higher EPS pension to EPFO?

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has extended the deadline to apply for higher pension from Employees' Pension Scheme (EPS) to June 26,2023 from May 3, 2023. The announcement for extension for the new deadline was made on May 2, 2023.

Pensioners or EPF members are given up to three months to deposit and consent for diversion of dues to be communicated, according to a circular issued by EPFO on May 11, 2023.




According to the EPFO circular, the Field Office will examine each case and classify it into the following categories:
1. Dues calculated have already been fully remitted to the EPS in the due months
2. Dues calculated have not been remitted to the EPS but contribution on higher wages have been fully remitted to EPF and there is adequate balance in PF account.
3. Dues calculated have not been remitted to the EPS but contribution on higher wages have been fully remitted to EPF and there is inadequate balance in PF account or the PF account is with trust of PF exempted establishments.

Information on dues and its deposit
The field office (FO) will notify the pensioners/members in each of the aforementioned categories of the outstanding debts and, if any money needs to be deposited or redirected, in accordance with the following table:

Category mentioned above	circular
1	Inform the pensioner/member through last employer that dues amount has been received.
2	Inform the pensioner/member through last employer that dues need to be diverted from Provident Fund to Pension Fund and written consent of the employee should be obtained and provided to FO.
3	Inform the pensioner/member through last employer that he has inadequate balance in Provident Fund thus, a) Balance needs to be diverted from Provident Fund (Available with EPFO) to Pension Fund and written consent of the employee should be obtained and provided to FO. (b) Deposit of the remaining amount of dues be made in the manner provided in this circular.

Note that diversion of these dues to be communicated in the following manner:

Month No	Total amount due	Amount to be diverted with interest from Provident Fund	Amount to be deposited with interest
1 (Issuance of Demand Letter)

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) recently announced revisions to the EPS higher pension program. It has now decided to deduct an additional 1.16% contribution from the employers' aggregate 12% contribution to the provident fund.

Employee Provident Fund (EPF) and Employee Pension Scheme (EPS) accounts are the two types of accounts that any employee who pays into the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) owns. Employees make a monthly contribution to the EPF equal to 12% of their monthly income plus the Dearness Allowance (DA). Equal amounts are also provided by the employer, of which 8.33% go to EPS and the remaining 3.67% are put into the Employee Pension Fund (EPF).

Who is eligible for EPF higher pension
On December 29, 2022, the EPFO released a circular that clarified the requirements for applying for higher pension contributions. The circular concerns workers who chose to contribute more than the standard wage ceiling, which was Rs. 5,000 before October 8, 2001, and Rs. 6,500 till August 31, 2014, to the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) and EPS accounts.

According to the circular, employees whose contribution to the EPF scheme was higher than the wage ceiling of Rs 6,500 or Rs 5,000, as the case may be, are eligible for higher pension contributions. Such employees must have submitted a joint declaration with their employer to opt for higher pension contributions and their request would have been rejected by the EPF authorities. They can now apply for higher contribution within the given window till March 3, 2023, to be eligible for higher pension.