Safety

What a PF consultant should never ask you for.

EPFO authorises no agents and charges no fee to process a claim. Everything a legitimate consultant does happens with your records, your forms and your grievances — and nothing else.

The five never-asks

Your OTP

The Aadhaar or portal OTP is the signature on your claim. Whoever holds it can file, change and redirect your money. EPFO says never share it with anyone. There is no legitimate reason for a consultant to have it.

Your password, sent by message

A password typed into WhatsApp or email is a password held by strangers. EPFO’s guidance is that credentials are never shared; a professional who needs to see your passbook can have you open it on your own screen during a call.

Cash “for the officer”

There is no fee at EPFO for processing a claim. Anyone collecting money to hand to an official is describing a bribe, and it makes you a party to it.

A cut of your balance

A fee that rises with the size of your PF rather than the work involved is not a fee for work. It also means a small, hard case gets less attention than a large, easy one. Ask for the fee in writing, before work starts, as an amount.

A guarantee

Nobody outside EPFO decides a claim, and nobody inside it takes instructions from a consultant. “Guaranteed settlement” and “contacts in the office” are the two phrases that should end the conversation.

Key Takeaway

A legitimate PF consultant never asks for your OTP, never asks for your password by message, never collects cash for an officer, never charges a percentage of your balance, and never guarantees an outcome. If any one of those appears, stop — whatever the name on the message.

What EPFO itself says

Never share your credentials with anyone.

EPFO’s grievance portal carries a standing warning: never share your UAN, password, PAN, Aadhaar, bank details or OTP with anyone, and EPFO or its staff never ask for them over messages, calls or WhatsApp. EPFO does not appoint, recognise or authorise any third-party agent, and there is no charge for processing a claim.

It is also the reason a consultant exists at all: EPFO explains none of its rejection remarks, and the fixes for the hard ones live with employers and field offices, not on the portal. That is the work we do for you, on your case.

What legitimate help looks like

None of it needs your credentials. All of it needs your records.

Reads the rejection remark and names the record behind it

Which entry is wrong — your date of exit, your EPS status, your father’s name in one of three systems — and which office holds it.

Tells you when you can do it yourself

Aadhaar-validated corrections, marking your own exit, a first grievance on EPFiGMS: a professional says so, and shows you where.

Prepares what you file

Joint declarations with the right supporting documents, transfer requests in the right order, clarification letters your employer can sign.

Works the employer and the office

Chases the previous employer for the filing only they can make; represents the facts at the field office through formal channels.

Keeps you informed on a schedule

Updates at agreed intervals — including “nothing has moved, and here is why that is normal right now”.

Key terms

Authorised PF agent: Authorised PF agent does not exist. EPFO does not license, appoint or recognise any agent, consultant or intermediary; anyone claiming official authorisation is misrepresenting themselves.

Success fee (percentage of balance): Success fee (percentage of balance) is a charge calculated on the size of your PF rather than on the work done. It is a warning sign: it makes small, difficult cases unprofitable to finish and large, easy ones lucrative.

Frequently Asked Questions

What people ask once they have been approached by someone offering to “get the PF released”.

Yes. Diagnosis, documentation, drafting grievances and coordinating with your employer are ordinary professional services. What EPFO prohibits is the opposite: it authorises no agents, charges no processing fee, and warns members never to share credentials or OTPs with anyone. A legitimate consultant operates entirely inside those rules.

Online claims are submitted from your own member login and signed with your Aadhaar OTP, so the filing is always yours. A consultant can prepare everything, sit with you while you file, and handle every step that happens outside the portal. Nominees and legal heirs file death claims in their own right.

No. EPFO does not appoint, license or recognise any third party, and says so on its grievance portal. Any claim of official authorisation is false. That is not an argument against taking professional help; it is the reason to judge help by what it asks of you.

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