The Universal Account Number is a 12-digit unique number issued by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to each EPF subscriber. Once issued, the UAN number remains the same throughout the employment period of the EPFO member.
The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) manages the Employees Provident Fund scheme, which is designed for the retirement benefits of all the employees in the private sector. Every EPFO member, once enrolled under the EPF scheme, is issued a 12-digit number known as Universal Account Number or UAN.
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The UAN is important for all EPF subscribers as it’s needed to track all transactions and to check EPF balance. As per the EPFO rules, it’s mandatory to link UAN with Aadhaar number. The UAN number remains unchanged throughout the employment period of the EPFO subscribers irrespective of the number of times they change their jobs. The UAN number is also required for advance withdrawals from the EPF account. If you have multiple UAN, it could be difficult to withdraw EPF advance.
It is important to note that an EPFO member should not have more than one UAN as it is against the rules.
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What will happen in case of multiple UANs?
To understand the consequences of having multiple UANs, one has to know under what circumstances more than one UAN could be issued to an employee. In some cases, multiple UANs could be assigned to a member upon changing organisations or upon opening a new EPFO account.
When an employee joins a new company, his employer generally opens a new EPF account which is linked with a UAN. In such cases, a new UAN could be allotted to the employee if the existing UAN details are not furnished.
On the other hand, if the previous employer fails to provide the last working day of the employee in the Electronic Challan and Return (ECR), this can also result in the issuance of multiple UANs.
In certain cases, where an employee chooses not to disclose his previous UAN to the employer, then a new UAN could be generated.
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How to merge or deactivate multiple UANs?
Method 1:
1. In the first method, one must report the issue to the EPFO or the new employer.
2. An email has to be sent to [email protected] mentioning the old and the new UAN.
3. Upon receiving the email, the EPFO will verify the issue and deactivate the UAN.
4. Finally, a claim has to be submitted to transfer the EPF account, for which UAN is cancelled, to the existing account.
Method 2:
1. EPFO members can place a request for the transfer of their EPF amount from the old UAN to the newer one.
2. Upon this, the system will automatically identify the duplicate UAN.
3. A verification will be done and upon its completion, the old UAN will be deactivated.
4. After deactivation, the old EPF account will be linked to the new UAN.
