Big Update for EPFO 3.0: There Are Now Only 3 PF Withdrawal Rules Instead of 13—See the New Benefits

The Employees' Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) is about to release a game-changing update called EPFO 3.0 for its millions of subscribers. This will make it even harder to withdraw PF funds.  There used to be 13 complicated and old rules. Now, there are only three simple categories that make sure claims are settled right away and 100% automatically.  Find out if PF ATM or UPI withdrawals will be possible and what new features will be added that will completely change the way the process works.

What is the truth about taking out PF money through an ATM or UPI?

Members of the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) have been eagerly waiting for the release of EPFO 3.0 for a long time.  Several reports say that EPFO 3.0 will have a lot of new features, like the ability to withdraw PF funds using an ATM or UPI.  There is a lot of talk about how subscribers will now be able to take money out of their PF accounts using ATMs or UPI.  This change in technology is probably making the rollout take longer.

The EPFO has not yet officially turned on the option to withdraw PF funds through ATMs or UPI, and there has been no official announcement about this yet.  It was supposed to launch in June 2025, but it has been pushed back because of complicated technical problems and a lot of testing.  There is no official date for when ATM/UPI withdrawals will be available yet, so members will have to wait for official word.

Only 3 categories now instead of 13

The biggest change in EPFO 3.0 is that the rules for partial withdrawal of PF have been made easier.  There were 13 different, complicated, and hard-to-understand rules for partial withdrawals until now. This made it very hard and confusing for subscribers to file claims.

EPFO has gotten rid of all of these and put them into three easy-to-understand groups. This makes the process much easier and clearer: -

Urgent Needs: This includes important reasons such as critical illness, higher education, and marriage.

Housing Needs: This includes taking money out to buy a home, build a home, or pay off a home loan.

Special Circumstances: This will include some very specific and urgent cases.

This will definitely make it easier for subscribers to make claims.

Other Important Features  Coming up: EPFO 3.0

EPFO 3.0 doesn't just make rules easier to understand; it also offers a number of other useful and appealing benefits that will give subscribers financial freedom:

Members can now take out up to 100% of their eligible provident fund balance, which includes contributions from both the employee and the employer.  In an emergency, this is a lot of money to help.

The limit on how much you can take out for education-related contributions has been raised to 10 times, and the limit for marriage-related contributions has been raised to 5 times.  Before, you could only take out money for these two reasons three times.

You only need to have been a member for 12 months to be able to make a partial withdrawal.

Members will have to keep at least 25% of their contributions in their accounts to protect their retirement savings and keep getting the high interest rate (8.25% per year) from EPFO.

There won't be any paperwork involved, and everything will be settled automatically (100% auto-settled), which will speed up the process of getting your money and save you time.  Also, the deadlines for early final settlement and pension withdrawals have been pushed back to encourage people to save for the long term.