EPFO 3.0 Reforms: What Has Changed In Centralised Pension Payment System, Auto Settlement, And Others

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) had launched its 3.0 initiative in 2025 to strengthen the overall EPFO IT systems and procedures. Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Shobha Karandlaje, recently shared the status of the reforms of the auto-claim settlement, centralised pension payment system (CPPS), and other reforms in relation to a set of questions asked by Member of Parliament Jashubhai Bhilubhai Rathva in Lok Sabha about the key reforms under EPFO 3.0 taken by the government so far.

EPFO 3.0

The EPFO 3.0 is an initiative that is being referred to as the digital revamp of the EPF IT infrastructure and related reforms introduced and likely to be fully implemented by the mid of 2026. For a long time, EPFO has been grappling with various infrastructure and service-related issues. As such, the EPFO had envisaged the reform initiative, and the central board of trustees (CBT) had approved it, with plans to roll it out in 2025. 

However, some significant reforms are yet to be implemented, such as EPF withdrawal through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), among others. These reforms are aimed at improving EPFO services and enhancing subscribers’ experience and convenience. These are expected to be rolled out in the near future.

While replying to the questions in Lok Sabha, Karandlaje informed that all the EPFO offices have adopted the CPPS as on January 1, 2025, and also put in place a disbursal system to fast-track pension payments. Around seven million pensioners benefit from the centralised payment system.  

Besides, a total of 3,52,20,199 claims of up to Rs 5 lakh have been settled through auto settlement mode as on February 25, 2026, in the financial year 2025-26. The minister said that over 70 per cent of claims for advance withdrawal, amounting to around Rs 51, 620 crore, have been settled so far, according to a report in the Economic Times. 

Incidentally, the EPFO raised the auto settlement limit in June 2025 from Rs 1 lakh previously to Rs 5 lakh to ease the burden of manual checking and reduce the processing time. The minister further said that the auto mode has been adopted in the transfer claims as well. As on February 25, 2026, over seven million (70,54,895) transfer claims were processed without the intervention of employees or employers. Previously, on switching jobs, the transfer of the PF account had to be processed manually. 

“The requirement of the approval of either of the past or the present employer for the transfer claims has been dispensed within know-your-customer (KYC)-compliant accounts. As on February 25, 2026, 21,39,247 transfer claims were submitted by employees without their employer’s intervention,” the minister said.