The central government said that it has no proposal to use unclaimed funds with the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and inoperative Employees Provident Fund (EPF) accounts for purposes other than the existing mechanism, ANI reported.
In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Pankaj Chaudhary, Minister of State (MoS) for Finance clarified that only insurance amounts unclaimed for over 10 years is transferred to the Senior Citizen Welfare Fund (SCWF). This is in accordance with an order by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) dated 19 June 2024, it added.
Notably, investors with unclaimed insurance amounts or inoperative EPF accounts can check their dues and make claims online facilitated by the Centre’s ‘Your Money — Your Right’ campaign. Today, we explain how…
How can users check for and initiate claims?
LIC
For LIC policyholders, they can search for unclaimed amounts on the insurer’s official website.
The company is also tracing policyholders and nominees by contacting customers through letters, SMS, local agents, Bima Sakhis and credit bureau agencies, it added.
Further, the Ministry’s ongoing ‘Your Money — Your Right’ campaign is running awareness advertisements across the country in multiple languages.
EPFO
For EPFO members, inoperative accounts are categorised based on KYC status. The release said that the Centre has initiated a pilot project for automatic settlement of Aadhaar-verified inoperative accounts with balances of ₹1,000 or less.
This will allow direct credit to Aadhaar-seeded bank accounts of EPF subscribers without requiring fresh claims or documentation. Further, and the model is proposed to be expanded to higher balance slabs after due diligence.
The government said outreach and awareness initiatives are also being undertaken through social media and Nidhi Aapke Nikat (NAN) 2.0 camps to help members identify and claim amounts lying in inoperative EPF accounts.
What is the ‘Your Money — Your Right’ campaign?
Your Money, Your Right is a nationwide effort to reconnect citizens with these forgotten financial assets and ensure that money that belongs to individuals and families ultimately finds its way back to them. Such assets include:
- Bank deposits such as savings accounts, current accounts, fixed deposits and recurring deposits that have not been operated for ten years or more
- Insurance policy proceeds that remain unpaid beyond the due date
- Mutual fund redemption proceeds or dividends that could not be credited due to reasons such as change in bank account, bank account closure, incomplete bank account in records etc.
- Dividends and shares that remain unclaimed and are transferred to statutory authorities
- Pension and retirement benefits that are not claimed within the normal course.
The initiative is coordinated by the Ministry of Finance, in collaboration with the RBI, IRDAI, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority (IEPFA), and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).
