EPFO Form 10C - EPS withdrawal or scheme certificate - citizen guide 2026

Left your job with less than 10 years of EPF service? File EPFO Form 10C to claim your Employees Pension Scheme 1995 benefit, and choose one of two paths: take the EPS lump-sum withdrawal benefit now, or get a Scheme Certificate that preserves your pension service so a future job can carry it forward and cross the 10-year line for a lifelong monthly pension.

If you are short on time: read the section “When to pick a Scheme Certificate over withdrawal” before you tick the option box on the form. That single tick decides whether you keep or lose your past pension service.

Your EPF salary deduction splits into two funds. The EPF (Provident Fund) corpus is your savings pot. The EPS (Employees Pension Scheme 1995) is your pension pot, funded by the employer share.

EPS pays a lifelong monthly pension only after you complete 10 years of pensionable service. Cross that line and you claim a monthly pension later through Form 10D. Stay below it and you cannot get a monthly pension on that service alone.

Form 10C is the EPS form for members who have not completed 10 years. Per the official EPFO Form 10C instructions, it lets you claim either the “Withdrawal Benefit” or a “Scheme Certificate for retaining the Pension Fund Membership”. Your EPF savings pot is separate and is withdrawn through Form 19, not Form 10C.

The withdrawal benefit is a one-time EPS lump sum. EPFO calculates it from your completed years of pensionable service and your average wage, paid per the prescribed slab in the scheme. The exact slab figure depends on your years of service, so confirm your eligible amount in your EPS passbook before filing.

The Scheme Certificate is a document that records your past pensionable service and keeps your EPS membership alive. You take no cash now. Per the EPFO instructions, on joining a new EPF-covered job your earlier service “will be carried forward and clubbing both the spells together pension entitlement shall be regulated”. That is how a person with 6 years here and 5 years there reaches a pensioned 11 years.

The EPFO instructions list who can apply. The common cases:

1. A member who left employment before completing 10 years of service.
2. A member who reached age 58 before completing 10 years of service.
3. The family, nominee or legal heir of a member who died after 58 but before completing 10 years of eligible service.

Note: a member with 10 or more years of service has no choice on Form 10C and can only be issued a Scheme Certificate. If you have left due to total and permanent disablement, you apply for pension through Form 10D instead, regardless of age or service length.

Most members file online with no employer signature. You need an activated UAN and KYC (Aadhaar, bank account and PAN) seeded and verified against your UAN, plus the mobile number linked to Aadhaar for the OTP.

1. Log in at the EPFO member portal, unifiedportal-mem.epfindia.gov.in, with your UAN and password.
2. Open Online Services and choose the claim option (Form-31, 19 and 10C).
3. Verify your bank account against the last four digits and accept the certificate of undertaking.
4. Under “I want to apply for”, select “Only Pension Withdrawal (Form 10C)”, or pick the Scheme Certificate option if shown.
5. Submit and authenticate with the Aadhaar OTP sent to your linked mobile number.

If KYC is not seeded, the claim option stays greyed out. Get Aadhaar, PAN and bank verified first, or use the offline Form 10C through your last employer. Track progress under “Know Your Claim Status”, and call the EPFO helpline 14470 if it stalls. A withdrawal claim is usually settled to your bank account; a Scheme Certificate is issued as a document you must store safely.

If you also want your EPF savings, file Form 19 in the same claim session. Importantly, holding a Scheme Certificate does not block your PF: the EPFO instructions confirm there is “no bar to withdraw the P.F. accumulations by the member”.

When you start that next job, do not file Form 10C again. Move the old account into the new one. See our guide on PF transfer on a job change using Form 13 auto-transfer so your service stays linked.

This is the choice that matters most at retirement.

Choose the Scheme Certificate when you expect to work again in an EPF-covered job. It is the only way to add your past service to future service and cross 10 years for a monthly pension. The EPFO instructions also note that if you hold a certificate and die before 58, your family can get family pension, and on survival you still get the withdrawal benefit with weightage as prescribed.

Choose the withdrawal benefit only when you are sure you will not rejoin EPF-covered work, for example if you are leaving the formal sector for good or moving abroad permanently. Taking the lump sum closes that EPS service. You cannot later revive those years for pension.

Get this wrong and the cost is real. A person who withdraws a small EPS sum at 30, then works 25 more years, retires with no pension on the early years. A Scheme Certificate would have preserved them. If you are already chasing higher pension, our note on an EPS higher pension application stuck in appeal shows how seriously these records are weighed.

No. Form 10C is for the EPS pension pot, to claim the withdrawal benefit or a Scheme Certificate. Form 19 is for the EPF savings pot. Many members file both together online, but they settle two different funds. Holding a Scheme Certificate does not stop you withdrawing your PF through Form 19.

No. Once you complete 10 years of pensionable service you cannot take the EPS lump sum. EPFO issues only a Scheme Certificate, and you claim a monthly pension later through Form 10D. The withdrawal benefit exists only for members below the 10-year mark.

No. It is a record, not a payment. It preserves your pensionable service and EPS membership so future service can be added to it. You get a monthly pension only after total clubbed service reaches 10 years and you reach pension age. You can still withdraw your separate PF savings meanwhile.

If you do not rejoin and do not reach 10 years, you can later claim the withdrawal benefit on that preserved service, with weightage as prescribed by the scheme. If you die before 58 while holding the certificate, your family can claim family pension. So the certificate keeps both doors open.

Your KYC is not fully seeded and verified. Check that Aadhaar, PAN and bank account are linked and approved against your UAN, and that your mobile number is Aadhaar-linked for the OTP. Until all three KYC items are verified, the portal blocks the claim. Fix KYC, or file offline through your last employer.

1. Log in at the UAN member portal and open your EPS passbook to see your pensionable service and likely benefit.
2. Confirm Aadhaar, PAN and bank KYC are all verified against your UAN.
3. Decide your path: Scheme Certificate if you may work in EPF jobs again, withdrawal only if you are certain you will not.
4. File Form 10C online, and Form 19 in the same session if you also want your PF savings.
5. For a wider view of EPF and pension rights, including survivor claims, read how a nominee claims PF and pension death benefits and keep The RTI Playbook handy if EPFO ignores your claim and you need to escalate.

References: EPFO Form 10C (EPS) Instructions, epfindia.gov.in; EPFO “Which Claim Form” page, epfindia.gov.in; Employees Pension Scheme 1995. EPFO member portal: unifiedportal-mem.epfindia.gov.in. Helpline 14470. Last reviewed June 2026.