Assistant Provident Fund Commissioner and Enforcement Officer / Accounts Officer (APFC and EO/AO) 2025 recruitment test. Transcribed from the Commission's own booklet (series A, PENA-A-PTS); answer worked out by our faculty — UPSC has published no answer key for this sitting. This question is in Part B. Answer last reviewed 25 August 2026.

Which of the following statements relating to the recent steps taken by the “Employees' Provident Fund Organization (EPFO)” is/are correct ? 1. EPFO has enhanced member services by increasing the auto-settlement limit for advance claims from the existing ₹ 1 lakh to ₹ 3 lakh. 2. EPFO first introduced auto-settlement of advance claims during the COVID-19 pandemic. Select the answer using the codes given below :

(a)1 only
(b)2 only
(c)Both 1 and 2
(d)Neither I nor 2

Answer

Why

Correct — B, (b) 2 only. One statement reproduces the announcement accurately and the other alters a figure in it.

STATEMENT 1 — 'EPFO has enhanced member services by increasing the auto-settlement limit for advance claims from the existing ₹ 1 lakh to ₹ 3 lakh.' INCORRECT AS TO THE FIGURE. The starting point is right — the limit was ₹ 1 lakh — but the new limit is ₹ 5 LAKH, not ₹ 3 lakh. The announcement of 24 June 2025 records the enhancement in terms: EPFO increased the auto-settlement limit for advance claims from the existing ₹ 1 lakh to ₹ 5 lakh, so that more advance claims qualify for automatic processing, with disbursal within three days of submission. There was no intermediate step at ₹ 3 lakh; the sequence ran from ₹ 50,000 to ₹ 1 lakh and then to ₹ 5 lakh.

STATEMENT 2 — 'EPFO first introduced auto-settlement of advance claims during the COVID-19 pandemic.' CORRECT. Auto-settlement was introduced during the pandemic to provide quick financial assistance to members, and the facility was afterwards extended to advance claims for illness, education, marriage and housing. Under it a qualifying claim is processed by the system without human intervention, which is what makes a three-day turnaround possible.

So statement 2 alone is correct, and the answer is (b).

The scale of the facility is worth carrying with the fact. In 2024-25 EPFO settled a record 2.34 crore advance claims through the auto mode, an increase of 161 per cent over the previous year, and 59 per cent of all advance claims that year were settled automatically — a share that rose further in the following year. Raising the ceiling to ₹ 5 lakh brings a further tranche of claims within the automatic route.

One feature of the printed option set should be noted and left as it stands: option (d) reads 'Neither I nor 2', with a capital letter I where the digit 1 belongs. The two comparable items on the same page print 'Neither 1 nor 2' correctly, so this is a one-off slip in the booklet. It does not affect the meaning of the option or the answer to the question.

Why the others are wrong

(a)1 only — This accepts statement 1 and rejects statement 2, which reverses the true position on both. Statement 1's figure is wrong: the auto-settlement limit was raised from ₹ 1 lakh to ₹ 5 lakh in June 2025, not to ₹ 3 lakh. Statement 2 is right: auto-settlement of advance claims was first introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, when EPFO needed to get money to members quickly and could not do so through a manual process. This option is what a candidate produces by reading statement 1 as familiar — it is otherwise phrased exactly as the announcement was — and doubting statement 2 because the pandemic feels too recent to be the origin of a settled administrative facility.
(c)Both 1 and 2 — This accepts both statements, and it is the natural choice for a candidate who remembers that the limit was raised but not by how much. The trap is well made, because everything in statement 1 except one numeral is exactly right — the phrase 'enhanced member services', the starting figure of ₹ 1 lakh, even the word 'existing' are all from the announcement. Only the destination has been changed from ₹ 5 lakh to ₹ 3 lakh. That is the standard way of building a false statement out of a true source, and the defence is to check the figures in a statement even where the surrounding language is recognisable.
(d)Neither I nor 2 — This rejects both statements, but statement 2 is correct: EPFO did first introduce auto-settlement of advance claims during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it later extended the facility to illness, education, marriage and housing advances. A candidate reaches this option by spotting the error in statement 1 and concluding that the item is wholly false, which is the over-correction that two-statement items are designed to catch. Each statement has to be adjudicated on its own. Note also the printing of this option, 'Neither I nor 2', where a capital I stands in place of the digit 1; the other items on the page print the digit correctly.

Concept

EPFO has spent several years moving from a manual, file-based claim process to an automated one, and the auto-settlement of advance claims is the central piece of that shift. Under it, a claim that meets defined criteria is settled by the system itself, with no officer intervening, so that money reaches the member in days rather than weeks. The facility began during the COVID-19 pandemic, when speed was the whole point, and was afterwards extended to the ordinary categories of advance a member may draw — illness, education, marriage and housing. Its ceiling has been raised in steps: ₹ 50,000 at first, then ₹ 1 lakh, and then ₹ 5 lakh by the announcement of 24 June 2025, with claims within the limit disbursed within three days of submission. The results are large: a record 2.34 crore advance claims settled through the auto mode in 2024-25, a rise of 161 per cent over the year before, with 59 per cent of all advance claims that year settled automatically. Read the facility against the statutory framework it operates within. Advances from the provident fund are governed by the paragraphs of the Employees' Provident Funds Scheme, 1952 framed under section 5 of the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, which prescribe the purposes for which a member may draw and the limits on each. Automation changes how quickly a claim is processed; it does not change what a member is entitled to.

This is the item on the paper where a candidate is most likely to be beaten by a single numeral. Its two statements are lifted almost word for word from the announcement of the change, and the alteration is confined to one figure inside an otherwise faithful sentence. That construction is the commonest way a two-statement current-affairs item is made difficult, and it is also the most instructive: reading an announcement is not enough unless the figures in it are read as figures. For an EPFO candidate the underlying material is not optional current affairs but the working of the organisation itself, and the auto-settlement limit is exactly the kind of operational number the papers expect to be known.

Key facts

EPFO increased the auto-settlement limit for advance claims from the existing ₹ 1 lakh to ₹ 5 lakh, announced on 24 June 2025.
There was no intermediate limit of ₹ 3 lakh; the sequence ran ₹ 50,000, then ₹ 1 lakh, then ₹ 5 lakh.
Claims within the limit are processed within three days of submission.
EPFO first introduced auto-settlement of advance claims during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The facility was subsequently extended to advance claims for illness, education, marriage and housing.
Auto-settled claims are processed by the system without human involvement.
In 2024-25 EPFO settled a record 2.34 crore advance claims through the auto mode, an increase of 161 per cent over the previous year.
59 per cent of all advance claims in 2024-25 were settled through the auto mode.
Advances from the provident fund are governed by the paragraphs of the Employees' Provident Funds Scheme, 1952, framed under section 5 of the 1952 Act.

Study next

The Employees' Provident Funds Scheme, 1952 — the purposes for which advances may be drawn and the limits on eachEPFO's digital initiatives — the Universal Account Number, the unified member portal and the centralised pension payment systemClaim settlement timelines and the grievance redressal machineryThe Employees' Pension Scheme, 1995 and its higher-pension litigationThe Code on Social Security, 2020 and its treatment of provident fund benefitsEPFO's coverage and enrolment figures as reported in its monthly payroll data

Common traps

Accepting a statement because its language is familiar. The whole sentence here is accurate except one figure.
Rejecting both statements after finding an error in one.
Confusing the auto-settlement limit with the EPF wage ceiling of ₹ 15,000, which serves a different purpose.
Doubting the pandemic origin of the facility because it is now routine.

The organisation's own announcements are the most predictable source of current affairs on this paper. Follow EPFO's releases through the year and note the figures separately from the descriptions, because the papers reproduce the description faithfully and alter the number. Where a limit has been raised, learn the old figure and the new one together, since a statement usually names both.

Related PYQs

EPFO_EOAO_2023_Q35

Which one of the following statements under the Employees' Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, is not correct ?

(a) It makes provision for pension scheme including family pension.
(b) It makes provision for Employees' Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme.
(c) The provisions of the Act shall not be applicable to Cooperative Societies employing fifty or more persons working without the aid of power.
(d) The contribution by the employer to the Fund shall be on the basis of the basic wage, dearness allowance and retaining allowance (if any) of the employee.

Answer(c) The provisions of the Act shall not be applicable to Cooperative Societies employing fifty or more persons working without the aid of power.

The EO/AO 2023 item on which statement about the Employees' Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 is not correct — the statutory framework within which these advances and their settlement operate.

EPFO_EOAO_2023_Q33

Which one of the following authorities constituted by the Central Government shall be the Appellate Authority under the Employees’ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 ?

(a) Employees Provident Funds Appellate Tribunal
(b) National Tribunal
(c) Labour Appellate Tribunal
(d) Industrial Tribunal

Answer(d) Industrial Tribunal

The EO/AO 2023 item on the appellate authority under the 1952 Act — the Industrial Tribunal, which is where a dispute about a claim under the Act would eventually be heard.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
The auto-settlement limit for advance claims under EPFO was enhanced in June 2025 from ₹ 1 lakh to :
- (a)₹ 2 lakh
- (b)₹ 3 lakh
- (c)₹ 5 lakh
- (d)₹ 10 lakh
Answer(c) ₹ 5 lakh
practice — not a real PYQ
Auto-settled advance claims under EPFO are processed :
- (a)Within three days of submission, without human intervention
- (b)Within twenty days, after verification by a Regional Officer
- (c)Only after physical submission of the claim form
- (d)Only for members with more than ten years of service
Answer(a) Within three days of submission, without human intervention

Why