Sunita Somvanshi
If your Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) account identification number—your UAN—is inactive, you can no longer activate it through the EPFO member portal. The activation process has moved entirely to the UMANG app (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance), and it relies on facial recognition.
This change reflects a broader push toward digital identity verification. To activate your UAN via UMANG, you will need three things: your Aadhaar number, a mobile phone number linked to that Aadhaar, and the Aadhaar Face RD (Recognition Data) application. The process uses Aadhaar-based face authentication to confirm your identity before activating the UAN.
The UMANG app handles two separate scenarios. If your UAN has been allotted but never activated, UMANG can activate it. If your UAN already exists but is inactive, UMANG can also activate it. Both are technically different journeys within the app, but both now route through facial authentication.
Why the change? In FY2024-25, the EPFO allotted 1.26 crore (12.6 million) new UANs, but only 44.68 lakh (4.468 million) were actually activated. That is a 35.30 percent activation rate—meaning roughly two-thirds of allotted UANs sat dormant.
The EPFO member portal still exists and remains operational for other functions. You can still track claims, retrieve your UAN if you have forgotten it, and process death-benefit claims. The portal itself has not disappeared—only the UAN activation pathway within it.
One separate reform worth clarifying: in June 2025, the EPFO enhanced the auto-settlement ceiling for advance claims from ₹1 lakh to ₹5 lakh, enabling system-driven approval within three days without manual scrutiny for eligible claims under categories such as illness, housing, and education. This applies to advance claims and is different from the UAN activation change.
Another proposal circulating involves ATM withdrawals from EPFO accounts, but this remains part of the broader EPFO 3.0 direction under discussion. Until an official notification confirms it is live, treat it as a planned feature, not a current option.
Users should ensure their Aadhaar-linked mobile number is active before starting the UAN activation process on UMANG.
