Getting Your UAN: A Step-By-Step Guide

The Employee Provident Fund, or EPF, allows you to build a financial corpus for your post-retirement life. As an employer, you are required to invest 12% of your basic salary towards your EPF account, and your employer also contributes an equivalent amount every month. These contributions keep accumulating in your EPF account by generating 8 to 12 returns (compounded annually) as decided by the government.

You can withdraw your EPF corpus only after you attain your retirement. However, pre-mature withdrawal of up to a certain percentage of the accumulated corpus is possible in certain cases. To withdraw money from your EPF account, you will need a Universal Account Number or UAN.

What is UAN?

UAN stands for Universal Account Number. It is a unique 12-digit number that helps you identify your EPF account and access various services related to it, such as checking your EPF balance, applying for a loan against your EPF corpus, and withdrawing your EPF funds, among others. Your UAN number is allotted by the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) at the time of EPF account opening.

How to get your UAN?

If you’re wondering how to get your UAN, here are a few simple steps to do so:

• Check your UAN card

You will find your UAN on your UAN card issued by the EPFO. If you don’t have your UAN card, you can download it by visiting the EPF member portal. However, doing so will only be possible if you have already activated your UAN login. The steps to activate your UAN are covered later in this article.

• Through your employer

You can also find your UAN by checking the salary slips provided by your employer. If your UAN is not mentioned on your salary slips, you can contact your company’s HR department to find it out.

• Through the EPFO portal

If you’re unable to find your UAN through the above-mentioned methods, you can visit the official EPFO portal and follow these steps:

Step 1 – Click on the “Know Your UAN” option in the bottom-left corner of your screen

Step 2 – Enter your registered mobile number and captcha, and then click on the “Request OTP” option

Step 3 – Enter the One Time Password (OTP) received on your mobile number

Step 4 – Enter your date of birth, PAN card, and Aadhaar card details on the redirected page

Step 5 – After entering your details, click on the “Show my UAN” button

Step 6 – You will receive one more OTP on your mobile number. Enter it to get your UAN number

How to generate your UAN?

Your UAN number is generated when your employer opens an EPF account. If you don’t have a UAN, your employer can generate it using the following steps:

Step 1 – Go to the EPF employer portal and log in using the establishment’s username and password

Step 2 – Click on the “Register Individual” option under the member section

Step 3 – Enter the employee’s date of birth, PAN number, Aadhaar number, and other required details

Step 4 – Cross-check and approve the details. Upon approval, the EPFO will generate a new UAN number for the employee

How to activate your UAN number?

After you’ve got your UAN number, you will need to activate it to access the EPFO services. Below are the steps to do so:

Step 1 – Go to the EPFO portal and click on the “Activate UAN” option just above the “Know Your UAN” tab

Step 2 – Enter your UAN number, Aadhaar number, name, date of birth, mobile number, and captcha to get an “Authorisation PIN”

Step 3 – Enter the Authorisation PIN received on your mobile number and click on the “Validate OTP and Activate UAN” button

The final words

Knowing your UAN is very crucial. You can use this 12-digit number to log in to your EPF account on the EPFO website and access relevant services. You can also provide your old UAN number to your new employer and ask them to link it with your EPF account when you switch jobs.

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