The Provident Fund (PF) scheme is backed by the government as a compulsory deduction for salaried employees. The corpus is maintained by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).

As part of the government’s Digital India initiative for a cashless economy, EPFO has recently unveiled the online nomination facility for member employees.

The employees need to update and link their KYC (Aadhar, PAN and bank account numbers) in the UAN portal. A 12-digit unique number assigned to every employee contributing to the EPF is needed for this. The photograph of the member should be available on the online profile of EPF portal.

The process of filing the online nomination for PF accounts has, however, turned out to be a tough task with rampant technical snag, lack of upgrade, and want of a more user-friendly interface.

Let’s see how it is done

• The member has to visit https://unifiedportal-mem.epfindia.gov.in/memberinterface/ and login to his or her EPF account using UAN number and password. To make a nomination, select the ‘e-nomination’ option under the ‘Manage’ tab.

• On the next page, if you tick ‘Yes’ to family, then you will be redirected to another page where you need to fill up the details about your family.

• If the answer is ‘No’, then the member will have to specify the total amount of contribution he/she wants to grant to the person being nominated along with the above specifics.

• Since Aadhaar details and photos of family members are compulsory to complete the process, the member has to click on the ‘Save Family Details’ option to proceed. If he/she has more than one nominee in the EPF account, the cumulative amount of the nominees' share is up to 100 per cent.

• The EPF nomination details will be saved separately on clicking the ‘Save EPF Nomination’.

EPF is also valid for EPS (Employee Pension Scheme) for other members in the family, where similar details will be required. A member can render different EPF and EPS nominations.

The member has to e-sign the nomination to complete the process. After this, you have to enter your aadhar details and verify. An OTP will be sent to your Aadhar-linked mobile number. On entering the OTP, the specifics of your nominee will be saved in the database of EPFO.