New EPFO Rules 2025: How To Withdraw 100% PF Balance Online? Explained From New Eligibility To Claim Process

Union Minister for Labour & Employment Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya in the 238th meeting of the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) PF, chaired by him, took several pathbreaking decisions on two grounds, viz. (1) to bring digital reach to EPF members and (2) raising the level for ease of living.

The 13 partial and complex withdrawal provisions have been streamlined and fully merged into one unified framework, bucketing them into 3 categories as mentioned below. In the 13 different categories, there were numerous conditions under which money used to get locked and the members would get hassled running from pillar to post.

• essential needs (illness, education, marriage)
• housing needs and
• special circumstances, allowing members to withdraw up to 100% of eligible balances, both employer and employee shares, keeping the minimum service period for all partial withdrawals uniformly at 12 months.

This has been done from the point of view of making the digital access faster and simpler and building up transparency on all such transactions.

When going about EPF withdrawal rules in 2025, one has to keep the following things in mind in order to make the withdrawal faster and safer:

(1) As far as full withdrawals are concerned, prior to this change, you may know that in the past, full withdrawal was not allowed while you were in employment and there was a much longer waiting period of 5 to 7 years. Under the newly enacted EPFO rules 2025, one can now withdraw up to 100% of EPF balance eligibility which includes both the employee and employer shares put together.

This is significantly a paradigm shift and a change of mind from the earlier rules which will benefit lakhs of PF members desirous of going in for withdrawal under any one of the 3 categories outlined above.

"As per the annual report of 2023-24, contributing members stood at 73.7 million compared to 68.5 million in the preceding years while the number of contributing establishments went up by 6.6% to 0.76 million as against 0.71 million in 2022-23," said Pratik Vaidya, Managing Director and Chief Vision Officer of Karma Management Global Consulting Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

From the figures published, the retirement fund body witnessed an increase of 55.4% in realizing arrear dues (Rs 5268 crore vis-a-vis Rs 3390 crore) over the previous year and an increase of 7.8% in the number of claims settled over the previous year at 44.5 million as compared to 41.2 million).

(2) When it comes to partial withdrawals, as per the newly added Para 68-BD in the EPF Scheme, 1952, EPF members can apply for a withdrawal of up to 90% of the accumulated corpus for either making the down payment of the house or for the payment of EMIs or for the construction of a new house.

The partial withdrawals have now broken the rules of rigidity by bringing in more flexibility from the point of liberalising the same for specific intent which can be :

• Medical treatment
• Higher education
• Marriage
• Housing
• Other special circumstances

Thus adequately simplifying the withdrawal process and enhancing ease of access for over 73.7 million members.

"The withdrawal or advance will all depend on how one has submitted EPF withdrawal claim online or offline. If you have submitted EPF withdrawal online , claim will be given within 7-20 days. If you have submitted EPF withdrawal offline then you get claim within 15 days to 2 months," commented Pratik Vaidya, Managing Director and Chief Vision Officer of Karma Management Global Consulting Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

(3) In regard to unemployment status, if you have been unemployed for at least one month, you can withdraw up to 75% of your EPF balance and if your unemployment continues for two months or more, you will be eligible to withdraw the entire balance.

(4) On the issue of PF Advances (Not Loans), Any PF member can request partial advances out of their EPF balance under specific circumstances. Kindly note that these will not be treated as loans since there will not be any repayment requirement. Advance taken will be considered as if payment has been made from your balance without the option of returning the advance amount taken, in which case, this will reduce your EPF balance forever from your working career and it will impact interest earnings which otherwise you would have earned on this balance amount.

Special circumstances are :

• Medical emergencies - No minimum service required
• Marriage / Education - Minimum 7 years of service
• Home purchase / construction - Minimum 5 years of service

(5) On the TDS taxation front , TDS rules on EPF withdrawals remain unchanged and are totally dependent on 3 factors viz. (a) service duration (b) withdrawal amount and (c) documentation.

Let us divide the TDS into 2 parts : where no TDS is applicable as per criteria given below:

• Completed 5 years of continuous service
• Withdrawal amount is less than Rs.30000
• Withdrawal is due to critical health condition
• For which one may submit Form 15G or 15H along with PAN , even if withdrawing Rs.30,000 or more (with less than 5 years of service)

However, please note, TDS will be fully deducted in the following cases :

• Withdrawal of Rs.30,000 or more
• Service is less than 5 years
• 10% TDS if PAN is submitted but Form 15G / 15H is not submitted
• 34.6% TDS if PAN is not submitted

Two very important points that come out from the changing view of accessibility to PF fund is that the earlier eligibility to withdraw took a very very long time, in fact, the earlier withdrawal for marriage or house purchase was allowed only after 5 to 7 years, but now it can be done just after one year.

"To reiterate, the changed perception has limited the withdrawal categories to a uniform 12 month, down from up to 7 years. Members can now withdraw 75% of the eligible amount (including employer and employee contributions plus interest) at any time without documentation , the amount being much higher than what was allowed previously by the old rules and systems," Pratik Vaidya added.

The second noteworthy point is that from the perspective of long term security, a minimum balance (25% of contribution) is kept back in order to store up a respectable corpus during the time of retirement. This will only safeguard some sizable amount being parked aside as a safety cushion.

However, full withdrawal is all the more permissible under special circumstances like unemployment, retirement , permanent disability, etc.

As far as withdrawal limits for education or illness are concerned, these also have been made more flexible. In special circumstances or emergencies, the full eligible amount can be withdrawn twice a year without assigning any reason.