As regards settlement of gratuity, the employer shall arrange to pay the amount of gratuity within 30 days from the date it becomes payable.

Good news for EPF subscribers. You won’t have to wait for months and years for the settlement of pension benefits now. Instead you can expect your pension to be settled on the day you retire. In a major development, retirement fund body Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has issued directions to its field offices to settle pension benefits to employees on the day of retirement itself.

“Directions have been issued by EPFO to all its field offices to make the payment of provident fund and pension to the members of Employees’ Provident Funds (EPF) Scheme, 1952 and Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS), 1995 on the date of retirement itself,” Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. He was responding to a question if the government had decided to settle the PF/EPF, gratuity of retiring on the day of retirement itself, said a PTI report.

“As regards settlement of gratuity, as per the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, the employer shall arrange to pay the amount of gratuity within 30 days from the date it becomes payable to the person to whom the gratuity is payable,” the minister added.

It may be noted that in June 2014, the government had decided to give pension payment order to an employee on the day of retirement itself with the aim to ensure a life of dignity for pensioners. There are about 48.85 lakh Central government employees and 55.51 lakh pensioners in the country.

EPFO has recently taken so many initiatives for the benefit of its over four crore subscribers. The facility to withdraw funds from one’s EPF account for treatment of illness and the provision of loyalty-cum-life benefit of up to Rs 50,000 are some of such steps. The subscribers of EPFO can also withdraw up to 90 per cent of their accumulations in their PF account for purchase of homes.