The retirement fund body EPFO on Tuesday extended the deadline to apply for the higher pension till June 26. The decision has been taken by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, to provide a larger window of opportunity and to enable all eligible persons to file their applications. According to the sources, the timeline for filing the applications will now be June 26, 2023. The labour ministry in their statement said, The EPFO (Employees Provident Fund Organisation) has made arrangements for obtaining applications for validation of option/joint option from pensioners/members as per the Supreme Court order on November 4, 2022, Labour ministry said in a statement.The departments statement also stated that the deadline has been extended to help and provide the pensioners and members adequate chance to relieve any difficulties they may be experiencing. After receiving many requests from workers, employers, and their associations, the department made the decision.Supreme Court ordered May 3, as the last dateFollowing the judgement of the Supreme Court of 4 November 2022, EPFO has prepared procedures to receive applications for the validation of option / joint option from pensioners/members. There is now an online resource accessible to help in this procedure. According to the official data, more than 12 lakh applications have been submitted to date. The online facility was supposed to be available till May 3, only.The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) had been mandated by the Supreme Courts judgement of November 4, 2022, to provide all eligible members four months to choose a better pension.The Supreme Court affirmed the Employees Pension (Amendment) Scheme 2014 in November 2022. The EPS amendment of August 22, 2014 raised the monthly pensionable salary limitation from Rs 6,500 to Rs 15,000 and members and their employers were allowed to contribute 8.33 percent of their real wages (if it surpassed the limit) to EPS.Apart from this, the Supreme Court also asked the EPFO body to come up with a replacement methodology for a 1.16 percent additional contribution, which EPFO used to ask its member to pay for when they decided to contribute to EPS. However, the EPFO is yet to come up with a new methodology.Why deadline has been extendedThe most recent deadline extension gives qualified employees more time to consider and submit their application for a higher pension from EPS. As it was challenging for many employees to apply for larger pensions.Additionally, they must check that their service records match EPFO data and that all of their EPF accounts have been combined into a single Universal Account Number (UAN) before submitting the form.The EPFO has also provided an online link where an employee who is eligible for the higher pension can submit the joint application form. The joint application form has to be approved by the employer.Who is eligible for a higher pensionAccording to the Employees Pension Scheme rules, an individual who has completed 10 years of service, is eligible for the pension from EPS. Employees who joined EPS before September 1, 2014, and kept it up after that date are eligible. And apart from this, employees and employers who made contributions on salaries that exceeded the regular pay cap of Rs 5,000 or Rs 6,500. Who are not eligibleEmployees with a basic salary exceeding Rs 15,000 are restricted from joining the Employees Pension Scheme. Also, those who retired before September 1, 2014, and did not opt for the higher pension contributions will not be eligible for the higher pension contributions.
