Reaching 58: Will My Employer Still Contribute to EPS? Seeking Advice!

After attaining 58 years of age, will the employer add EPS Contribution? Kindly suggest.

Regards,
Srinivasa Rao Ch.

Hi, When an employee crosses 58 years of age and is in service, EPS membership ceases upon completion of 58 years. The Pension Contribution at 8.33% is to be added to the Employer's Share of PF.

Hi, The employer must stop EPS contributions after an employee crosses 58 years of age. If the employer continues EPS contributions after 58, PF will not automatically stop EPS credits, and then the employee will have problems when applying for an EPS Pension.

EPS Contributions After 58 Years

My one doubt is, will EPS contributions be made in the wage month when the employee attains 58 years, or will it be stopped in the previous wage month? For example, if the date of reaching 58 years is 10 Feb 24, will EPS contributions be made for the wage month of Feb 24?

Thank you.

By a circular issued in the year 2016 by the EPFO, there is a provision for deferment of pension up to the age of 60 years, both with or without contribution. If one opts for deferment of pension with contribution, their EPS contribution will continue until the age of 60 years.

If the date of attaining 58 years of age is 10th February 2024, you have to calculate the Pension Fund contribution for ten days in February 2024 and pay it. From the 11th onwards, the employee may either become an excluded employee or continue with PF only. In the latter case, the employer's PF contribution for the period since 11th February should be paid only into the PF account.

After attaining 58 years and still wanting to continue service, the management can pay the PF contribution for both the employee and employer, but not the pension contribution. Pension will be paid after attaining 58 years. This means both the employee and employer's contribution to EPF is allowed and admitted, but not the Pension.

Yes, indeed, there is such an EPFO Circular about deferring pension as brought out by Dr. Kamlesh. Based on an experience in my organization, I think, leave aside employees and employers, even people in the EPFO organization don't know about it! One of our employees found out about this circular and opted for deferring pension till age 60 "with Contribution." We had sent the relevant forms by registered post AD and also by email. He retired in July '23, and his pension case was promptly rejected by EPFO, stating EPS contribution was done beyond age 58. We, of course, replied with documentary evidence (including the acknowledgment card returned by EPFO). Unfortunately, the person is yet to receive his pension! The retired employee has been lodging grievance after grievance, but the situation remains status quo. There is a huge gap between EPFO's own circulars and their implementation.

Reference Circular Dated 25-04-2016

Employees can opt for contributions to PF and Pension until attaining the age of 60 years.

@Arun, the order regarding the option to defer the pension and thereby receive an additional 4% and 8% amount as pension is attached. There were two options: one was to contribute to the pension until 60 years of age and then start receiving the pension, and the second was to defer the pension without contributing. I understand that this is no longer in effect because there was a specified time limit for choosing the option, which should have ended long ago. Please review the attached circular.

Just to inform you all, my age is approaching 60, and I am contributing to the pension fund. However, I am the only person in the history of EPFO, Nagpur, to have accomplished this, and it required a significant amount of effort. Initially, to my surprise, the EPFO authorities were not aware of this provision. Finally, they had to modify the system to accept contributions beyond 58 years of age.

Regards,