Will EPFO’s 2025 enrolment window fix your PF gap

EPFO’s Employees’ Enrolment Scheme 2025 is a six‑month window from 1 November 2025 to 30 April 2026 that lets employers declare and register workers who should have been covered by EPF but were missed earlier, mainly those who joined between 1 July 2017 and 31 October 2025 and are still on rolls during declaration. The aim is to widen social security and encourage voluntary compliance by lowering past‑period costs and simplifying online declarations through the EPFO portal, so more salaried workers get provident fund protection and continuity of service records. This follows the 2017 campaign that covered left‑out workers from 2009 to 2016, and it uses a similar amnesty approach to bring establishments and employees into the net without long disputes.

Under this scheme, the employee’s past share is waived if it was never deducted from wages, and the employer pays only its own share with interest and administrative charges, plus a nominal flat penalty of ₹100 per establishment covering EPF, EPS and EDLI for the declared period. Employers must file online declarations, generate or authenticate UANs, and remit month‑wise contributions via ECR linked to a TRRN for the entire eligible past period from each employee’s joining date in the window. Declarations can be made even if inquiries exist under certain provisions, and no suo motu action will be taken for employees who already exited before declaration when dues are regularised as specified. 

For employees, this means formal EPF coverage going forward and credit for past service once employers regularise, which helps with retirement savings, insurance under EDLI and pension eligibility because continuous membership matters for benefits calculation and portability of accounts. For employers, this is a time‑bound chance to clean legacy gaps at low penalty and avoid prolonged litigation, so it is wise to audit payroll from July 2017, identify left‑out eligible staff, and complete declarations and ECRs within the window. The government’s messaging is clear and consistent across notifications and press releases that the campaign is to expand coverage and ease compliance, so early action reduces interest outgo and operational rush near the deadline.