By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JAN 09, 2025: SECRETARY, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Sumita Dawra, reviewed the progress of 21 Zonal Offices of EPFO in the country on various key performance indicators, at a meeting in Shram Shakti Bhawan, New Delhi yesterday. CPFC and other senior officers of EPFO and MoL&E were present at the meeting.  Secretary took stock of zone-wise progress of various key performance indicators (KPIs) as part of good governance reforms, including Universal Account Number (UAN) activation with Aadhaar Number-linked-Mobile number, for existing & new employees. This must be achieved in timely manner in mission mode, it was emphasized. Other issues highlighted were grievance redressal with emphasis on quality of grievance redressal, besides other technological & operational enhancements.

Aadhaar-enabled UAN activation:

In this context, Secretary (M/oL&E) stated that using Aadhaar as an identity document simplifies government delivery processes, enhances transparency and efficiency, and ensures beneficiaries receive their entitlements seamlessly. Aadhaar-based verification eliminates the need for employees for producing multiple documents to prove their identity for claims settlement, and will lead to systemic reform.

It was emphasized to undertake Aadhaar based UAN activation right at the beginning, at time of creation of the UAN. She also said that during 'Nidhi Aapke Nikat' held on 27th of every month, efforts should be made to involve various other departments including Post Offices, Banks and Common Service Centres (CSCs) to ensure resolution of all issues related to Aadhaar based UAN activation.

During the Zone wise progress assessment, the top performing zones, viz Delhi-Uttarakhand-Jammu & Kashmir, Gujarat, Karnataka and Goa were asked to highlight the strategy adopted for their achievements. On the other hand, challenges being faced by the low performing zones were also discussed and suggestions provided.  Zones were directed to strengthen collaboration with Aadhaar updating agencies such as CSCs, post offices, and banks to ensure seamless updates and adopt innovative approaches to meet their workload targets and activation goals.

Quality of Grievance Redressal:

On the issue of improving the grievance redressal mechanism in EPFO, a presentation on classification of grievances was made and strategies for addressing various categories of grievances like delay in claim processing due to errors in member profile, employers' non-compliance, technical glitches etc, were discussed. An analysis of grievances received in the Ministry and in EPFO, besides on social media, was discussed, and the quality of grievance redressal by the Zonal officers was analysed. Efficiency and empathy with which grievances of the members are addressed should be prioritized.

A significant improvement in processing of claims as well as reduction in rejection rates in a month's time was targeted by the Ministry.

Several measures, including auto-escalation of claims pending beyond 30 days, real-time tracking systems, dedicated teams for urgent cases like medical emergencies and senior citizen claims, and process re-engineering to enhance operational efficiency were recommended for adoption by EPFO Zonal offices. "Interventions to improve grievance redressal must address behavioural and attitudinal transformation, alongside IT and process enhancements", was reiterated for quality grievance redressal mechanism.

As part of strategy, significance of KPIs in monitoring progress, and the importance of leveraging technology for governance improvements was stressed. Tools like the UMANG app for face authentication, Aadhaar-based mobile verification, and dashboards were identified as crucial enablers for efficient service delivery and enhanced transparency.

The above meeting was part of Ministry's regular review of work of EPFO with a view to ensure state-of-art IT systems, process re-engineering and simplification to improve the service delivery to over 7.5 crore active members and 78 lakh pensioners.