Struggling with Delayed PF Withdrawal and Transfer Issues – Any Advice on Next Steps?

Hi,

Please help me in getting my PF money. I applied for PF withdrawal in January 2007. I received a letter from the PF office recently in July 2009 stating that they have sent me my PF withdrawal cheque. However, I have not received the PF cheque, nor has the money been credited to my account. I wrote to the PF office in Delhi with a copy of the letter, but I have not received any reply. Please suggest.

At the same time, I applied for PF transfer from another company. I received a letter from the PF office confirming that my PF has been transferred. However, in my annual PF statement, the transferred PF amount is not reflecting. I sent a courier to the PF Commissioner in Delhi on August 25th, 2009, but I have not received any reply. Please suggest.

Thanks,
Sujata

Could you please provide me a copy of the PF application you sent to the PF Office if it is available with you? After reviewing that, I can comment on where you might have made a mistake.

In case of any queries or clarifications, feel free to call or write.

Even though I have applied for my PF withdrawal to the PF Bangalore office, it has been 6 months now, but I haven't yet received the amount. I wrote a letter to the Bangalore PF office Commissioner, but I have not received any replies. Could anyone help me find out the status of my PF?

Could you please provide me a copy of the PF application that you have sent to the PF Office if available with you? After having a look at that, I can comment on where you might have made a mistake.

In case of any queries or need for clarification, feel free to call or write.

Hi Srishti,

In Bangalore, there are 4 PF offices. Could you please inform me to which office you have submitted the claim forms? Also, where were you working in Bangalore? There seem to be some issues at the Bommanahalli office. I applied in December 2007, and after frequent follow-ups, I received the amount only in April 2009, which took around 1.5 years. However, I did not receive the full amount even then. Currently, I am in the process of fighting with them, providing all the necessary documents. I am determined not to give up on this matter under any circumstances. For any further details, feel free to call or email me at pjeevarathnam@gmail.com.

Jeeva
9343753361

Ask them where they have posted your cheque. Then, you can check your post office to make this easier.

Abhishek

Friends,

Please remember that you should always send registered letters to any statutory authority in order to sustain a claim under the law. Moreover, emails are also admissible pieces of evidence in courts. Never send private couriers.

SUGGESTION: Make as much use of the RTI Act as possible. Whenever you are seeking the status of any of your applications claiming your dues/rights.

Advisor/Consultant

After dealing with PF Office in Pune on many occasions and having experienced their work culture and attitude, I would like to suggest the following:

• Always send any letter / correspondence thru registered post only or submit it in PF Inward Section and obtain acknowledgement.

• Maintain copies of all the papers and documents submitted in your own file.

• You can not expect any reply to letters written by you. You will have to visit the PF Office personally, many times, to resolve your problem. Please check visiting hours beforehand. PF Office follows visiting hours very strictly.

• One or two visits to PF Office will not solve your problem. You have to have qualities like persistence and patience in you. Also you need to convince your boss to get leaves to visit PF Office.

• At first instance, PF Staff will tell you the status of your claim by querying in their computer. System query will give you information like (i) claim is not received (ii) claim is returned to employer for some discrepancy (iii) claim is settled. But mind you information in the PF System is rarely updated hence mostly misleading. You will have to come to PF Office armed with all the information and homework, be persistent to ask more details and seek entry in the section where your case is dealt with.

• You may get very plain replies from PF Staff you will have to counter them by cross questioning and by seeking more details. E.g.(i)‘your case is being processed, you will get result soon' counter it with ‘tell me exact date when I will get result, if not I will visit you again'. (ii) ‘Cheque is already dispatched' counter it with ‘give me cheque no., amount, and dispatch date' (iii) ‘we have not received your application, submit it again' counter it by showing the acknowledgement and ask them to search the original in their office and refuse to resubmit the same.

• If you do not get satisfactory replies at section level approach higher ups do not hesitate to approach even PF Commissioner. Old pending cases can be solved by their intervention only.

• In case PF staff commits that, they will process the case say in a week, take specific date commitment and tell them you will be back on that particular date.

• Make use of RTI, PF Grievance Cell and PF Adalat to put pressure.

• All the best.

• If you demonstrate your resolve to get your own money from PF Office, then only your old pending claims may get settled.

For your first question, it is advised to check with your bankers with the PF letter to know what action they have taken if they received the payment. Then, without making delay, meet the PRO of the concerned PF office with all details, as the money may be credited into somebody's account.

For your second question, the transferred amount might have been received by the section of the PF office in which your present PF accounts are maintained, lately, that is after making the annual account slips. So, you will have the PF annual account slips included in the forthcoming period.

Take immediate steps for your first question.

Hi,

Thank you, I will check with the bankers once. Regarding my PF transfer, I have received a 3-year annual statement, which does not show the transfer amount.

Hi, you have suggested me to:

• Make use of RTI, PF Grievance Cell, and PF Adalat to put pressure. However, I don't have any idea about RTI. Please help me understand.

In each PF Commissioner's Office, there is one officer designated to take care of RTI Act related applications. You can submit the application to this officer, quoting details of your PF Withdrawal Application and seek information regarding the status of your application. To know about, how to seek information under RTI Act, you may search on google.
Thanks & Regards

There are three government agencies involved in PF clearance: the first is the PF Organisation, the second is the Indian Postal Service (Speed Post), and the third is Bank Authorities (may be private). The PF authorities, under pressure, may send a letter to the other two agencies and keep quiet on the issue. Most probably, they may advise you to follow.

Though you can get details from the bank (since you are their customer), you cannot get a reply from the post office as they are not responsible to individuals. Please do not waste your time going behind all these agencies. Instead, the PF organisations are conducting adalat meetings on the 10th of every month. The application forms can be obtained from the particular PF organisations until the 5th of every month. File your grievances through PF Adalat. Please be available on the 10th, and your case shall be attended to by the PF commissioner.

Please note that a new check will only be issued after 6 months from the date of the previous check if, in case, the PF authorities are not able to trace the old one.