A long-standing confusion has addressed in the question of higher pensions. According to a Supreme Court order dated November 4, 2022, employees who were members of the EPF before September 1, 2014, and continued working or retired thereafter, would have the option to avail themselves of a higher pension, in actual salary terms, after submitting a joint option with their employer for such higher pension. This, thus, overruled the circular dispatched from EPFO in 2014, which stipulated that a higher pension was only available to employees earning above Rs 15,000 who had exercised that option during service.
Status Of Applications
On July 21, 2025, Minister of State for Labour and Employment Shobha Karandlaje appeared in the Lok Sabha and informed that the EPFO has processed 98.5% of the 15.24 lakh applications for higher pension received. This development took place following the Supreme Court’s directive of re-examining all cases. However, the government refused to give specific reasons for rejected applications but emphasized that there existed complete and thorough review procedures. The rejection rate in certain places like Chennai and Puducherry ran quite high: 63,026 applications were rejected out of 72,040 received.
The Application Process And Deadlines
Since February 26, 2023, the online system of submitting applications for higher pension benefits was launched by EPFO. In the interest of the employers, the cut-off days for inputting the salary details were extended multiple times, with the final date falling on January 31, 2025. Roughly 4.66 lakh applications require at least some clarifications, while around 3.1 lakh are pending actions on the part of the employers. The online portal is used by members to check the application status among other things, thereby creating a transparent process.
Challenges And Concerns
Since the process is still going on, issues regarding these rejected applications remain unresolved, with 7.35 lakh rejections in the country, most of which results from technicalities and incomplete documentation. Employees maintain that employers must be held responsible for not providing the records.
Discussions are meanwhile raging in other areas against the EPFO’s claim of an estimated liability of Rs 1,86,920 crore for higher pensions, with several questioning the authenticity of such assessments.
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