How to Merge an Employee's Pension Fund from a Previous Job: Process and Timing Questions

Dear All,

An employee of our company has served his previous employer for 12.5 years. He has withdrawn his P.F. from there and now wishes to merge his pension fund of the previous employer with his current employer (our company).

Kindly help me with the following points:

1) How can it be done? The complete process, i.e., the forms to be filled, etc.
2) When can it be done? Someone told me that it can only be done at the time of his retirement or when leaving the job from our company. Is this true, or can I do it now as well?

Waiting for your response. My company is based in Haryana, and his previous employer was also in Haryana. He is around 15 years away from his retirement.

Thanks and Regards,
Haya

If he had worked for 12.5 years (more than 10 years) and had withdrawn the Provident Fund contributions, he should have obtained a scheme certificate in lieu of withdrawal benefits of the Pension Fund contribution. That is, an employee who had worked for at least 9 years and six months will not be able to get the withdrawal benefit of the Pension Fund; instead, he will receive a (Scheme) Certificate from the Ministry of Labour certifying his past service, details of him and his family members like date of birth, etc. The purpose of this certificate is that once he joins another establishment to which PF is applicable, he can surrender the Scheme Certificate and have the benefit of past service added to the current service. Therefore, please verify whether he possesses any scheme certificate or not, and if available, collect it and send it to the PF office for surrendering. His past service will automatically be added to the present service. If not available, please check with the PF office.

Regards,
Madhu.T.K

Thank you very much for your reply.

Yes, he does possess a scheme certificate. Do I need to fill in some form for the same?

After surrendering the certificate, will his pension be merged with the current company, and can he get the benefits once he retires from here?

You need not send any particular form along with the scheme certificate, but you can send it along with Form 5. If you have already sent Form 5 earlier, you can send the scheme certificate separately with a covering letter addressed to the Asst. Provident Fund Commissioner. The rest, the PF office will take care of.

Regards,
Madhu.T.K

Dear Haya,

The correct procedure is that while leaving the previous job, the employee had to apply for a scheme certificate. When joining a new service, the certificate is to be transferred to the new service. However, you may now transfer the previous service by applying using Form 13 immediately.

Abbas P.S