From Withdrawal To Settlement, 7 Key EPFO Changes In 2025

The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has made several changes in the provident fund scheme this year (2025), from streamlining the processes to changing the rules. The aim is to make the oldest social security schemes in India easily accessible to the subscribers while ensuring their financial security. Here we list seven such significant changes EPFO approved in 2025, that are expected to make EPF fund access faster, convenient, and complaint-free.

Here are the crucial changes in 2025: 

Final Withdrawal Rules Change

The Central Board of Trustees (CBT) of the EPFO, which is headed by Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, approved significant changes in EPF withdrawal rules in the October 2025 meeting. It allows only 75 per cent of the corpus withdrawal at any time, and the remaining 25 per cent to be maintained in the EPF account until retirement or 12 months after unemployment.

Partial Withdrawal Rules Change

EPFO also eased partial withdrawal rules for education and marriage by increasing the frequency from the previous three withdrawals combined to 10 withdrawals for education and five for marriage purposes. It also merged the existing partial withdrawals 13 provisions into three (essential needs, housing needs, special needs).

EPFO Introduces Passbook Lite

In September 2025, EPFO implemented the EPFO passbook lite facility where member can easily access their employee provident fund details on a single screen. EPFO subscribers can check their passbook and a summarised view of contributions, withdrawals, and balance on the member portal itself. They need not log in to the passbook portal for this. Earlier, they would have to visit the passbook portal of EPFO.

Auto-Withdrawal Limit Raised To Rs 5 Lakh

In June 2025, EPFO raised the limit for auto-settlement of claims from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. This was done to improve claim settlement. Earlier, the manual verification of claims would cause subscribers to be dissatisfied. Auto settlement was available only for claims up to Rs 1 lakh. The limit has been increased to reduce the claim settlement burden and make the process faster.

UAN Activation Through Face Authentication Technology (FAT)

In April this year, EPFO introduced UMANG App-based face authentication to generated universal account number (UAN). This was done to simplify the UAN allotment and activation process. Now, employees don’t need to depend on employers for generating their UAN. They can do it themselves using the FAT facility.

Bank Passbook Copy Not Required

In March this year, EPFO removed the need to upload a cheque leaf or attested copy of a bank passbook for making a partial withdrawal claim. Earlier, the unclear image would result in claim decline and further complaints by EPF subscribers. Now, there is no need to upload these.

15 Banks Added For Contribution Collection

Beginning this year, EPFO empanelled 15 more banks authoring them to directly transfer EPF funds collected from subscribers to the EPFO. This was to reduce the delay in fund deposits. For subscriber, this means faster transfers of their contribution to the EPFO, hassle-free and improved processes, and overall enhanced efficiency.