Switching Jobs: Can You Withdraw Your PF Within 60 Days? Let's Discuss!

Dear All, Is it compulsory to transfer the PF amount if an employee has switched to another organization within 60 days? Is there any recent circular from EPFO stating that if a member is joining another organization within 60 days, he/she cannot withdraw his/her PF amount? Please discuss - help.

Regards,

No, it is not compulsory to transfer the PF amount. You can withdraw your PF amount after leaving the current firm, after 2 months. Please refer to the PF withdrawal form on the 3rd page.

Withdrawal of PF Amount: Legal Guidelines

By law, you are not allowed to withdraw your PF amount, irrespective of how long it is between jobs. You are supposed to withdraw it only after retirement. Since there is no fixed definition of retirement and it can't be easily enforced, the rules allow employees to withdraw their PF amount if they stop working. However, this is only for those who are not going to take up a job again. The form for withdrawal has such a declaration (I don't remember the exact wording).

When you join a new organization, you are required to fill up a form that has details of your previous PF account. In the above cases, you will need to give a false declaration at both ends. Even that is likely to be plugged with the concept of a single centralized PF number (as against the current practice of a PF number linked with the employer's code). So again, you will not be able to withdraw it unless you give a false declaration and ask the company to create a new account for you (stating you did not have a PF account earlier).

Dear Deepmona,

You are welcome to this forum of knowledge sharing. This is your first response (and second post of yours) to the query in the forum. I do not intend to discourage you from posting. I am not a senior member or moderator of this forum, but still, I would like to advise you to confirm the correctness of the response, at least in such queries where a question of law is not involved and a question of fact is involved. Our posts are read by people from all over the world, and they carry the wrong picture with them.

The correct answer to the query is there in the query itself. However, there is no recent circular. It is an old law and new.

Regards,