Now, PF withdrawal can be claimed only after attaining age of 57

Retirement fund body EPFO has tightened norms on withdrawal of provident fund as well investment of such amount in Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana for its over five crore subscribers.

"Now, the subscribers will not be able to claim withdrawal of their provident fund after attaining age of 54 years. They would have to wait till attaining the age 57 years. The ministry has notified new rules," a senior official told.

As per the earlier norms, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) subscribers were allowed to claim 90% of their accumulations in their PF account at the age of 54 years and their claims were settled just one year before their retirement.

The official said that the earlier clause was relevant because there were establishments where retirement age was 55 years or 56 years.

"In today's scenario when retirement age is 58 years across all organisation the clause of scheme is not relevant.

But the big change is that now under this facility, the subscriber would be able to withdraw his contribution and interest earned on it unlike 90 per cent of the total accumulations earlier," he explained.

In another change, EPFO has made it mandatory to wait till attaining the age of 57 for claiming PF withdrawal for transferring that to the Life Insurance Corporation of India for investment in Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana.