Saving By Force? EPFO’s New Rules Divide Experts, Workers
Published by The Core
Abhishek Kumar's role: Quoted
Abhishek Kumar said many people treat their provident fund like a savings account, so retaining 25% is not a bad idea. He welcomed the merged withdrawal categories and noted that money withdrawn in panic after a job loss cannot be put back later.
What Abhishek Kumar said
Was EPFO's rule to keep back 25% of the PF balance a bad idea?
When EPFO revised its withdrawal rules in October 2025, I felt they had both good and bad provisions. But many people use their EPF account as if it were a savings bank account: they keep withdrawing from it and end up with little set aside for later in life. Seen in that light, retaining 25% of the balance did not sound so bad to me.
How did merging the EPF withdrawal categories help members?
Bringing the many withdrawal categories down to three, as the revised rules did, was very helpful in my view. Most of the trouble people run into when withdrawing from their PF comes from filing the claim under the wrong head. With fewer, broader categories, much of that confusion should go away, and claims should be easier to file correctly.
Should I withdraw my PF after losing my job?
Think carefully before you do. After a job loss, people often panic and pull money out of their PF even when they do not need it immediately. The difficulty is that once the money has been withdrawn early, there is no mechanism to put it back into the account later on. So it is worth asking whether the money is really needed right now before taking it out.
In our words, from what he said in the piece. General information, not personal advice.
More of Abhishek's views on retirement
The article examines EPFO's revised withdrawal rules, under which members can withdraw up to 75% of their provident fund balance while 25% is retained, with exceptions. Through the experiences of members, it looks at the debate over forced savings, the simplified withdrawal categories and reduced paperwork.
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Saving By Force? EPFO’s New Rules Divide Experts, Workers