You are allowed to have just one UAN number linked to member Id of your various employers. You would have to merge all your UANs to be able to withdraw from your EPF account online. How to merge 2 UAN accounts. This article gives an overview of UAN, Member Id, What to do when one has 2 UAN Numbers, How EPFO will handle duplicate UANs.

UAN, Member ID or EPF Number

What is UAN Number, Member ID and PF Number

UAN is Universal Account Number. The UAN is a 12-digit  number allotted to employee who is contributing to EPF.  It is expected that The universal account number remains same through the lifetime of an employee. It does not change with the change in jobs.   Universal number is a big step towards shifting the EPF services to online platform and making it more user-friendly.  Our article FAQ on UAN number and Change of Job discusses common questions on UAN number.

Member Id or Member Identification Numbers is the number given by EPFO to allow the employer to submit EPF money of employee. It’s like Employer opens an EPF account for its employee and contributes to that account every month. Member ID is the account number of employee in the EPFO. When the employee changes the job then the new employer will open a new account number for it’s employee in EPFO. So a new Member ID will be allotted to employee. Member ID is same as PF number earlier. So you would have as many Member ID’s as the number of employers contributing on your behalf to EPFO. 

Member ID or PF Account Number is in the format given below. PF Account Number may not have Extension code.

EPFO Office Code/Establishment Code(Max. 7 Digits)/Extension(Max. 3 digits)/Account Number (Max 7 digit)

Ex: For someone who works in Bangalore the code can be BG/BNG/012345//789

An employee will have one UAN or Universal Account number, which as the name implies will remain the same. It will maintain all your Member Ids.  Its like you can have multiple Saving Bank account but all these are tied to your one Permanent Account Number or PAN. So when you change your job and the new employer, if contributing to EPF, gives you a new Member ID.

How is UAN number allotted?

• The EPFO will allot employers the universal numbers of all employees for which employer makes EPF contribution.
  • If the employee does not have a UAN number, probably because it’s his first job or he was working before Jan 2014 before  UAN number process started. Then employer will request the EPFO to generate the UAN number for its employee along with Member ID.
  • For an employee who already has a UAN number the employer will submit the request to EPFO to generate new Member ID for the employee and link it to the UAN number of the employee by submitting Form 11 filled by new employee.
• The employer would then give the number to its employees, who need to provide their KYC (know-your-customer) details to the employer.
• The KYC details of employees would then be updated online on the EPFO website by the employer.
• An employee can also upload the scanned copy of the KYC document through the EPFO website once you are done with the UAN-based registration. However, your employer has to digitally verify your KYC details.

Every UAN will be linked to one or more Member Ids upto maximum of 10. It would help to track the EPF contribution throughout the entire career.

Change of Job and UAN number

What to do when one changes job. If  Universal Account Number (UAN)  s  already allotted then one is required to provide the same on joining new establishment to enable the employer to in-turn mark the new allotted Member Identification Number (Member Id) to the already allotted Universal Identification Number (UAN). This is done by Filling the  epf-NewForm-11-with-instructions(epf)  which replaces the old Form 11 and Form 13.  Part of Form which refer to Previous Employment details and Declaration by previous employer are given below. Our article EPF Form 11 on Joining a New Job discusses the Form 11 in details.

2 UAN alloted

When do you end up having 2 UAN?

There have been cases where duplicate UANs have been issued.

• At the time of initial allotment, the employer has not furnished the date of exit in the ECR (electronic challan cum return) even if the member has left the employment and joined some other establishment. Thus, two UANs have resulted to such members for both the employments.
• Secondly, at the time of joining the present employment, a new UAN has been allotted to the member due to wrong declaration by member/employer under the UAN programme.

How was the problem of 2 UAN alloted to same member was solved earlier?

In such a case, you are suggested to immediately report the matter either to your employer or through email to uanepf@epfindia.gov.in by mentioning your current and previous UANs. After due verification the previous UAN allotted to you will be blocked and Current UAN will be active. Later you will be required to submit your Claim to get transfer of service and fund to new UAN. Our article UAN Problems, Password,Mobile Number,Incorrect Details and Help Desk discusses common problems associated with UAN numbers.

Many cases filing grievances have helped.

How would the problem of duplicate UAN be solved after Sep 2016?

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has decided to deactivate all Universal Account Numbers  (UANs) from which provident fund transfer has been effected to another PF account having different UAN. The earlier UAN would be simultaneously blocked for further use. The move will eliminate the problem of duplicate UAN. Our article UAN or Universal Account Number and Registration of UAN discusses how to register UAN.

EPFO has asked it offices to identify such cases on periodic basis where the PF transfer has been effected from one EPF account to another, both having different UANs attached to these EPF accounts. The process would be implemented in respect of all identified UANs even when no request has been received from the member.

The member would be informed of the deactivated status of his previous UAN by SMS to the registered mobile number. The member would be requested to activate the new UAN to get the updated status of his EPF account.

However, it has said that there is a possibility of arrear payment by the previous employer for the member. In such cases, since the system knows the new UAN against deactivated UAN, the system would automatically populate the new UAN in the ECR (on punching of previous UAN or member ID by the employer) and the statutory contribution by the employer against the arrears can be remitted against new UAN only.

So if you have 2 UANs then?

Ideally, an Employee who is an EPF member can have only one UAN and can have multiple member-IDs linked to it.

You have a new UAN in addition to old UAN. UAN is registered with a mobile number, Don’t use the mobile number associated with old UAN to activate new UAN. You would not be allowed to do so. If you are activating the new UAN, use a different mobile number. Try to keep the old number till transfer of EPF & UAN happens as you would get information about old UAN to the mobile number.

If you have withdrawn your EPF and EPS then no need to do anything. Your first UAN is of no use. So you can just send mail to uanepf@epfindia.gov.in to block your old UAN and keep a copy of mail, just in case.

If you have to transfer your old EPF account then Transfer the old EPF account associated with old UAN to new UAN.  Then during the periodic check, your old UAN number will be .Old UAN would be deactivated. The member would be informed of the deactivated status of his previous UAN by SMS to the registered mobile number. Our article How to merge 2 UAN accounts discusses in detail.

List of articles for an Employee:Earning,EPF, UAN,Study

• Withdrawal or Transfer of Employee Provident Fund
• EPF Private Trust, the Exempted EPF Fund
• How much EPS Pension will you get with EPS Pension Calculator
• How EPFO Manages Money, EPFO invesment in Stock Market
• Changing Jobs:Take Care Of Bank Account,Tax Liability
• Changing Jobs and Tax, Form 12B
• FAQ on UAN number and Change of Job

Do you have you 2 UAN numbers? What did you try to rectify ? What do you think of this move of EPF on process of duplication of UAN?