How to Withdraw EPF balance without employer’s signature

Employee provident fund or EPF is managed by Employee Provident fund organisation (EPFO) of India. Employers eligible for maintaining EPF account of their employees are required to deduct certain portion from employee’s salary in addition to their own contribution as employer.

These amounts i.e. amount deducted from employee’s salary and employers contributions, are invested and in return employee obtains interest amount every year to his EPF account.

For depositing into Employee Provident Fund account, employee need not do anything on his own. Account creation with EPFO and depositing money to EPF accounts are the responsibility of the employer.

However, employer cannot withdraw money from employee’s EPF account.Its the employee who needs to apply for it. Even though it has been deposited by your employer, employees are the owner of the balance in Employee Provident Fund account and employer cannot claim anything from EPF balance or even cannot withdraw it on your behalf.

Two forms are required to be filled up for withdrawing your Employee Provident Fund balance. Form 19 is required for withdrawal of your invested money in EPF and form 10C is required for withdrawal of invested money in employee pension scheme.

If for any reason you left the company without intimating to your employer or for some other reason your employer is not interested in signing the EPF withdrawal form, then you can withdraw EPF balance without employer’s signature.

To withdraw balance in EPF account without employer’s signature you need to follow following steps;

• Download form 19 and form 10c for withdrawing the balance in Employee Provident Fund and EPS account respectively. You can also obtain these EPF forms from any of your local EPFO office.
• Fill up the form and get it attested from any of the bank managers or any gazetted officer. You can also get it signed by any of the magistrate or notary or post masters or sub post masters. We suggest you to get it attested by a notary which is easy in comparison to other alternatives available to you.
• In additions to the above documents you also required to address a letter to the regional PF commissioner stating the reason of not getting the EPF forms attested by your employer. Employees can also attach any proofs that are required in support of their claim.
• You cannot withdraw your EPF balance or balance laying in EPS account if you are still working or employed somewhere. You can withdraw such amount only if you are unemployed. You need to attach an affidavit (Rs. 100 stamp paper) signed by any notary public by stating that you are unemployed.
• You need to send all these forms to the concern regional office where your EPF accounts are maintained. After receiving the EPF withdrawal form, your withdrawal process will start. You can track the EPF balance that can be withdrawan from EPFO website.
• After all these process, balance in your EPF and EPS account will be transferred to your bank account.

You can try above procedures if your employer has shut down its business or no longer available to sign your withdrawal form. Reliving letter from employer or any other proof of your employment is not required for withdrawing EPF account without employer’s signature.

However, you need to provide all the correct details in the application form while sending it to EPFO office. If your employer has not provided the EPF account number then you can get it from your payslip that is issued to you every month by your employer.

Recommended Read:

1. How to check your EPF claim Status Online.
2. How to check your EPF balance online