NEW DELHI: The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is stepping up efforts to help subscribers recover unclaimed money lying in inoperative accounts.
Officials say nearly a quarter of Aadhaar-verified inactive accounts could soon be cleared of idle balances. The EPFO is developing an auto-settlement system that will allow account holders to receive funds directly in their bank accounts without filing claims.
The proposed system is expected to cover around 8.1 lakh Aadhaar-linked inoperative accounts, with total unclaimed deposits of about ₹5,200 crore. Among these, roughly 14,000 accounts hold over ₹5 lakh each, while 38,000 accounts contain between ₹1 lakh and ₹5 lakh. Another 41,000 accounts have balances ranging from ₹50,000 to ₹1 lakh.
At a recent meeting, the Central Board of Trustees approved automatic settlement for accounts with balances of ₹1,000 or less, enabling direct transfers to registered bank accounts. Based on the outcomes, a broader rollout for higher-value accounts is planned. Priority will be given to members who joined after October 2017.
An EPFO account is classified as inoperative when it stops earning interest—typically after no contributions are made for three years following retirement at age 55. However, for members below 55, accounts continue to earn interest until they turn 58.
As of February 2026, there were 31.8 lakh inoperative EPFO accounts holding a total of ₹10,181 crore in unclaimed funds. Of these, nearly 7 lakh accounts are more than 20 years old, 1.8 lakh are between 10 and 20 years old, and around 13 lakh accounts fall in the 5–10 year range.
