One of the most crucial tasks an employee performs at the beginning of a new financial year is their PF balance check. Every month an employee contributes an amount of 12% of the basic salary to their EPF account, and their employer also adds the same amount. This contributed money plays a necessary role in stabilising the financial life of an employee because it provides a retirement fund.
Every employee with a PF account receives an EPF member passbook which gives information for the monthly deposit and total balance of the account. However, the EPF member passbook needs to be updated regularly to get the necessary balance information. Therefore, to ease the process of PF balance check, employees have multiple online and offline ways.
Different Ways of PF Balance Check
There are two methods to check the balance of PF. These are:
- Online methods
- UMANG app
- EPFO web portal
- Unified portal
- Offline methods
- Give a miss call
- Send an SMS
Let’s understand these methods of PF balance check in detail.
UMANG App
A member of EPFO can do the PF balance check on the mobile phone by downloading the UMANG app, which is a government centralised application. The Indian government aims to provide all the government services under one roof through this application.
For a quick PF balance check, employees need to register their mobile number with this app, which is further linked to their UAN. Thus, they can access their PF balance anytime without the need to update their EPF member passbook.
EPFO Web Portal
Employees who are a member of the EPFO can check their PF balance through the official website. For this, they need to click on the EPF member passbook option in the employee’s section. Afterwards, they can log in with their UAN and password to view their account details.
The PF account details include the interest rate, transfer of amount, breakup of employer and employee contribution, and opening and concluding balance. However, if someone owns multiple PF accounts, they must click on the particular member ID for the PF balance check of that account.
Unified Portal
Employees can also visit Unified portal to log in with their UAN and password to view their PF balance by opening the EPF member passbook online. This portal shows the information on PF contributions for multiple financial years.
PF Balance Check via Miss Call
The most convenient method of PF balance check is through a missed call. It requires a member to dial ‘011-22901406’ with the registered mobile number. Once they give the miscall, they will get the details of their PF balance on their mobile phones. However, to use this option, the EPF member must have an active UAN number, and it must be linked with documents like PAN, Aadhar, and bank accounts.
PF Balance Check via SMS
All the EPFO members need to send an SMS to 7738299899 to get the details of the last contribution amount and the current balance. However, the format of the SMS must be ‘EPFOHO UAN ENG’. For example, if a member’s UAN is 456789 and the preferred language is English, they will write the message as ‘EPFOHO 456789 ENG” for the PF balance check.
Currently, the SMS facility is available in ten different languages in India, and the first three initials of each language are used for PF balance check through SMS. These languages include the following:
- English
- Hindi
- Bengali
- Marathi
- Punjabi
- Gujarati
- Telugu
- Kannada
- Malayalam
- Tamil
Conclusion
Employees must keep an eye on their PF balance check to know their savings and how much interest they are getting on the balance amount. Currently, the central government has allowed an interest rate of 8.10%. Therefore, EPF members can easily calculate the interest amount for the whole financial year by doing a PF balance check.
