The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has issued fresh guidelines to help correct errors in pension contributions under the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS). The move aims to bring uniformity across offices and protect the pension rights of employees.
Through a December 19, 2025 circular, the , which usually come to light only when employees apply for their pension.
EPFO said it had received several complaints about pension contribution errors being handled differently by regional offices. In many cases, employees faced problems at the time of pension settlement because of incorrect entries or missing contributions.
To avoid confusion and legal issues, the EPFO decided to lay down a clear and uniform procedure for correcting such mistakes.
The circular explains that if EPS contributions were wrongly paid to employees who were not eligible for the pension scheme, the excess amount must be returned. This includes the wrongly credited pension amount along with the applicable interest.
The money will be transferred back from the EPS account to the provident fund account or to an exempted trust, as applicable. Any pensionable service wrongly added to the employee’s records will also be removed.
In some cases, employers failed to deposit EPS contributions for eligible employees and instead credited the entire amount to the provident fund account. For such cases, EPFO has instructed offices to calculate the correct pension dues.
The required amount will then be physically transferred to the pension account. Pensionable service details and non-contributory periods, wherever needed, will also be updated to reflect the correct history.
According to EPFO officials, the main goal of the circular is to ensure that employees do not lose pension benefits because of accounting or compliance mistakes. Correct and updated records will also help reduce delays, disputes and court cases at the time of pension claims.
The EPFO hopes that these standardised guidelines will make pension settlements smoother and more transparent for members in the future.