Employees' Pension Scheme 1995 (EPS-95)

What is EPS-95?

The Employees' Pension Scheme 1995 (EPS-95) is a compulsory social security scheme administered by the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation under the Ministry of Labour and Employment. EPS-95 was introduced on 19 November 1995 and entitles employees in the organised sector to a monthly pension after retirement, along with pension for the family in the event of the member's death.

EPS-95 sits inside the EPF structure. When an employer deposits its 12% contribution, 8.33% of the employee's wages is diverted into the Pension Fund and the remaining 3.67% stays in the provident fund account. The employee's own 12% goes entirely to the provident fund. The employee makes no separate EPS contribution.

Key objectives

• Provide a guaranteed monthly income to organised-sector workers after they turn 58.
• Protect the family through widow, widower and children's pension when the member dies.
• Convert a portion of the retirement corpus into a lifelong stream of income rather than a one-time lump sum.

Main features

• Compulsory for eligible EPF members, it is not an opt-in scheme.
• Employer contributes 8.33% of wages up to the Rs 15,000 statutory ceiling, which is Rs 1,250 a month.
• The Central Government contributes 1.16% on the pensionable salary as an additional contribution.
• A minimum pension of Rs 1,000 per month has been payable since 1 September 2014.
• Pension is payable from age 58 after 10 years of contributory service.

Who is eligible for EPS-95?

You are covered if:

• You are an EPFO member working in a covered establishment.
• You have completed 10 years of contributory service, not necessarily continuous, since service under different employers can be aggregated when linked to one UAN.
• You have attained 58 years of age for a full superannuation pension, or 50 years for a reduced early pension.

You are not eligible if:

• You are not an EPFO member, unorganised-sector workers, the self-employed and employees of establishments outside EPF coverage cannot join EPS-95. Such workers should look at Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan instead.
• You joined the EPF on or after 1 September 2014 on wages above the Rs 15,000 ceiling. Such new members are not eligible for EPS membership and their full employer contribution goes to the provident fund.
• You are a government employee covered by a separate pension rule such as the National Pension System or an old-pension-scheme rule.
• You have less than 10 years of contributory service. You get a withdrawal benefit or a Scheme Certificate instead of a pension.

What documents are required for EPS-95 pension?

How to apply for EPS-95 pension

1. Activate your UAN on the EPFO Member Portal at unifiedportal-mem.epfindia.gov.in if you have not already done so.
2. Complete KYC; link and verify your Aadhaar, PAN and bank account with IFSC code against the UAN, and get them digitally approved by your employer.
3. Confirm that your date of exit from your last employer is recorded correctly. A missing exit date is the most common reason a pension claim cannot be filed.
4. Log in and go to Online Services → Claim (Form-31, 19, 10C & 10D).
5. Verify the last four digits of your bank account, then select Form 10D; Monthly Pension as the claim type.
6. Fill in the pension details, choose your pension start option, upload the supporting documents and submit using the Aadhaar OTP.
7. Track the claim under Online Services → Track Claim Status until the EPFO regional office settles it and issues your Pension Payment Order (PPO) number.

Members who cannot use the portal may submit a physical Form 10D through the last employer to the EPFO regional office that holds the account.

How much pension does EPS-95 provide?

The EPS-95 monthly pension is calculated using the formula:

Monthly pension = (Pensionable salary x Pensionable service) ÷ 70

Pensionable salary is the average of the wages on which EPS contributions were paid over the last 60 months of service. Pensionable service is the number of years for which contributions were made.

A minimum pension of Rs 1,000 per month applies from 1 September 2014, so a member whose calculated pension falls below that figure is paid Rs 1,000.

Because contributions are capped at the Rs 15,000 statutory wage ceiling, most members' pensionable salary is capped there too, unless a higher-pension option applies to their case.

What types of pension are payable under EPS-95?

• Superannuation pension, payable from age 58 after 10 years of contributory service.
• Early pension — payable from age 50 after 10 years of service, reduced by 4% for every year the pension starts before 58. The reduction is permanent.
• Widow or widower pension; payable to the surviving spouse on the member's death.
• Children's pension; payable alongside the widow pension, at 25% of the widow pension per child, until the child turns 25.
• Orphan pension, payable when both parents have died.
• Disablement pension: payable to a member permanently and totally disabled during service.

What is the EPS-95 higher pension option?

EPS-95 normally caps pensionable salary at the Rs 15,000 statutory wage ceiling, so most members' pensions are calculated on that figure however much they actually earned. The Supreme Court judgment of 4 November 2022 upheld the right of eligible members to have their pension calculated on their actual (uncapped) wages instead, provided the extra employer contribution is paid on those higher wages for the whole period of service.

Following that ruling, EPFO issued circulars in February 2023 and opened an online joint-option facility on the Member Portal for members to apply along with their employers. According to EPFO's implementation circulars, the window for applying was extended in stages and finally closed in 2023. Members who did not file the joint option within that window cannot exercise the higher pension option now, and this is a frequent source of disappointment for recently retired members.

For those who did opt in, EPFO recomputes the pension on actual wages and recovers the shortfall in past EPS contributions: often a large lump sum diverted from the member's provident fund balance or paid separately. Whether higher pension is financially worthwhile depends on the salary history and the diversion demanded, so members were advised to compare the recomputed pension against the interest their provident fund corpus would otherwise have earned.

What if you leave before completing 10 years?

Members who exit EPS-95 before completing 10 years of contributory service receive a withdrawal benefit calculated from Table D of the scheme, based on completed months of service and the wages on which EPS contribution was received.

According to an EPFO press brief, the Government of India amended the scheme in June 2024 so that members with less than 6 months of contributory service also become entitled to withdrawal benefit. A change expected to help more than 7 lakh members a year. Table D was simultaneously modified so that every completed month of service counts, benefiting an estimated 23 lakh members annually. As an illustration cited by EPFO, a member with 2 years and 5 months of service on wages of Rs 15,000 a month, earlier entitled to Rs 29,850, now receives Rs 36,000.

Alternatively, a member can take a Scheme Certificate on Form 10C and carry the past service forward to the next job, so the years add up towards the 10-year pension threshold.

Help and grievance redressal

• EPFO helpdesk / toll-free: 14470
• Missed call service: 9966044425
• SMS service: 7738299899
• EPFiGMS. The EPFO's online grievance management system for written complaints about claims, PPO issue and pension credit.
• EPFO regional office; locate yours using the office locator on epfindia.gov.in.

EPS-95 membership and pension claims are free. No consultant or agent can speed up a claim, and EPFO never asks for an OTP or UAN password over the phone.