NEW DELHI: As part of its attempts to ease rules, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has decided to allow individuals to withdraw money for treatment of illnesses, purchase of equipment for handicap as well as borrow for funding education and house building through self-declaration.

“We are seeking to do away with all types of certification needed for withdrawals. This will make life easier for subscribers,” said a senior EPFO official.

This will do away with the need to submit detailed certificates, which often take time, and expedite fund withdrawal by over 4 crore EPFO subscribers. The agency has issued fresh rules and enabled employees contributing to provident fund to take non-refundable advance for illness and purchase of medical equipment.

EPFO members can seek an advance from the their corpus for treatment of illness, major surgery, as well as for hospitalisation of over one month in case they are suffering from TB, leprosy, paralysis, cancer, mental derangement or heart ailment. The advance was earlier granted only after receipt of a certificate from employers or employees that the member or his dependent were not covered under the Employees’ State Insurance Scheme. In addition, subscribers were required to submit a certificate from a doctor.

The new rules, however, do away with the requirement to submit any certificate or document to avail of the advance. Similarly, physically handicapped members were allowed an advance to purchase equipment but withdrawals were allowed only on submission of the medical certificate from a doctor or an officer authorised by the EPFO.

In recent months, EPFO has taken a series of steps to ease rules. Recently, subscribers were allowed to withdraw up to 90% of the funds in their accounts for home purchase, including for down payment as well as payment of EMIs using the EPF account.