The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) on Tuesday said over 74% claimants during the lockdown were “low wage earners”, that is those who earn less than ₹15,000 a month. “Despite the lockdown restrictions, the EPFO settled a staggering 36.02 lakh claims thereby disbursing ₹11,540 crore to its members during April and May. Of this, 15.54 lakh claims, disbursing ₹4,580 crore, were related to the recently introduced COVID-19 advance under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana,” it said in a statement. “A look at wage slab-wise data points out that more than 74% claimants belonged to the slab of less than ₹15,000 wage. Turning adversity into advantage, EPFO launched its first fully automatic claim settlement system in a record time of just five days.

Source: The Hindu June 09, 2020 12:11 UTC