How many times we can withdraw PF advance for illness?

While withdrawing PF advance, illnesses are usually the most widely used option among EPF members in India. You should know that it doesn’t matter whether they are ill. They can claim to withdraw their PF advance amount through the illness option.

But someone may wonder, thinking about the common question regarding PF advance with illness, the exact reason for how many times we can withdraw PF advance for illness?

How Many Times We Can Withdraw PF Advance For Illness?

If you are planning to make a claim to withdraw the PF advance amount by using the illness option, you should read and learn the complete information in this article. Just follow the essential facts below to know how many times we can withdraw PF advance for illness. Such as:

1. You should know that there is no maximum limit to withdrawing the PF advance amount for illness reasons. For medical reasons, EPF members are allowed to withdraw PF advance amounts as many times as they need. Provided they have a sufficient amount collected in their PF account. Usually, EPF members can withdraw their six months’ basic wage plus DA or their total employee PF contribution, whichever is less.

2. Please note that illness and the outbreak of Pandemic Covid 19 are not the same reasons. The outbreak of the pandemic Covid 19 was introduced to aid the EPF members during the lockdown in India.

3. During the outbreak of the Pandemic Covid 19 reasons, EPF members can withdraw PF advance only once. The withdrawal amount can be up to 75% of the employee and employer contribution or the last three months’ basic wage plus DA, whichever is less.

4. You can not use the outbreak of pandemic COVID 19 reason option next time to claim to withdraw your PF advance amount, in case you have already taken the same. But still, you can withdraw your PF advance amount for illness reasons many times.

5. You should be clear that you will not be physically checked whether you or your family members are actually ill or not. But your PF account will be reviewed by EPF officers for verification of whether you have sufficient funds in your PF account or not.

6. While making a claim to withdraw the PF advance amount by using the illness option, you do not need to submit any medical bills or doctor’s prescriptions in this regard.

EPF officers will settle your PF advance amount on the basis of the availability of funds in your PF account. Because they know that, finally, that is your amount, and by withdrawing the PF advance amount, you are losing 8.50% interest in your and your employer’s aggregate PF contributions.

9. You should know that the claim for your PF advance amount will be credited to your bank account within 20 days, but sometimes the claim may be credited before the due time. Please make sure that you keep your correct bank account number and IFSC code updated in the UAN member portal so that EPFO can do the needful to release your PF advance amount without questioning you in this regard.

10. When you withdraw an advance amount from your PF account, you can get tax discounts. However, you should know that you can withdraw an advance amount only after providing five years of continuous service. Tax deducted at source (TDS) will be imposed on your money if you withdraw your PF balance before the end of the 5-year period.

11. You should know that, depending on the situation, no tax will be levied on EPF withdrawals before five years in some instances, such as:

• In case you claim to withdraw funds for medical emergencies or health issues that cannot be avoided.
• Or when your total accumulated PF amount is lower than Rs.50,000
• Or when you are withdrawing your PF balance amount using Form 15G or Form 15H (If you submit PAN, then there will be a TDS at 10%)
• Or when you managed to transfer your PF balance amount from a PF account to another account.
• Or when the employer’s business is withdrawn.

12. You should know that EPF members in India can make three different types of PF withdrawals on the EPFO member portal, such as:

1. PF final settlement,
2. PF partial withdrawal, and
3. Pension withdrawal benefit.

The EPF members can make the PF withdrawal types as mentioned above, on the EPFO member portal with the attestation of their employer, if they have registered their Aadhaar card details with their UAN.

Although the EPF corpus can be withdrawn only after retirement, early retirement is only considered once the person reaches 55 years of age. EPFO allows withdrawal of 90% of the EPF corpus one year before retirement, provided the person is not less than 54 years old.

Remember that the EPF subscriber must declare unemployment to withdraw the EPF amount. As per the new rule, EPFO allows the withdrawal of 75% (of the EPF corpus) after one month of unemployment. After gaining new employment, the remaining 25% can be transferred to a new EPF account.

As per the old rule, 100% EPF withdrawal is allowed after two months of unemployment.

So this way, you can quickly learn the complete information about how many times we can withdraw PF advance for illness.

Conclusion

So if you were skeptical about how many times we can withdraw PF advance for illness, we have already cleared your doubts.

As already discussed above, there is no maximum limit if you use illness as the option to make EPF Withdrawals Online.

But don’t frequently try to do so, because you will miss the EPF interest amount, which is credited to your EPF Balance and may be helpful for future purposes.

However, the EPF corpus can be withdrawn if a person faces unemployment before retirement due to lockdown or retrenchment.