Employee Provident Fund - EPF Form 31

About EPF Form 31

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation offers an online facility where employees can apply for EPF advance. The form required for claiming an EPF advance is Form 31. The form is available once the employee logs in to the UAN Portal. However, to apply for EPF advance online, the employee must have his/her bank details, Aadhaar Card, and PAN card details updated on the portal.

The advances or loans taken from the EPF scheme can cater to his or her different financial requirements such as weddings, medical exigencies and constructing a house among others. The list of reasons for which advanced may be taken by an employee are listed below:

• Housing loan repayment
• Education
• House repair
• Wedding
• Medical treatment
• Construction of a dwelling
• Plot purchase
• Lockout
• House alteration
• Physically handicapped
• Abnormal conditions such as natural calamities
• Cut in supply of electricity

Downloading EPF Form 31

Form 31 is available on the EPF website. The procedure is mentioned below: 

• The member must log in using his/her UAN and password on the EPFO member portal. 

• The member will have to go to the ‘Online Services’ tab and then select ‘Claim’ for generating an online request. 
• On clicking claim, a new page will open with all the details of the member, such as name, date of birth, father’s name, PAN number, Aadhaar number, date of joining the company, and mobile number. On checking if all the information is correct, the member can click on ‘Proceed for Online Claim’. 
• The next page will be the type of claim the member would like to apply for. Select ‘PF ADVANCE (FORM 31)’ in the drop-down menu. 
• The member will need to select the purpose for the advance. There will be various options available in the drop-down box such as illness, natural calamities, power cut, non-receipt of wages, and purchase of handicap equipment. The amount and his or her current address must be filled in the next field. 
• On completing this, the member will have to sign the disclosure. On checking the box, the ‘Get Aadhaar OTP’ will be visible. On clicking that, he or she will receive the OTP, and this must be authenticated. On entering the OTP and clicking on ‘Validate OTP and Submit Claim Form’, the member will complete the process for online EPF advance application.  

Documentation Required to use EPF Form 31

The documentation which has to be produced by an employee for various purposes in EPF Form 31 is listed is the table below:

What does EPF Form 31 Contain?

An employee has to fill out the following information in Form 31 under the Employee Provident Fund Scheme 1952

• Mobile number
• Purpose for which advance is required
• Advance amount required
• Name of the member
• Husband’s name (married women)
• Employee PF Account Number
• Monthly basic wages plus dearness allowance
• Full postal address
• Signature of applicant
• Signature of employer
• Mode of remittance
• If an advance is being taken for housing loan repayment or construction of a flat or site via an agency, an employee has to mention the name of the recipient on whose name the cheque has to be drawn in addition to the complete address of the recipient
• Savings Bank account number
• Name of the bank
• Branch name and complete address
• IFS code
• Copy of a cancelled cheque
• If the advance is being taken for wedding expenses, the employee has to mention the details of his daughter/sister/son/brother who is getting married including his or her age, wedding date and address (if the advanced applied for is not meant for marriage purposes, an employee need not fill in any details in the section)
• Signature of the employer
• Signature of the applicant
• Details related to advanced stamped received
• Signing official’s designation (along with establishment’s stamp)

EPF Form 31 Format

You can visit the following URL: https://epfindia.gov.in/site_docs/PDFs/Downloads_PDFs/Form31.pdf to download the EPF Form 31. You can take a print out of the form and fill it up. Here is how the EPF Form 31 looks: