Single smartcard to give workers social security benefits

With government rolling out the system of paying cooking gas subsidy directly into beneficiary bank accounts, the labour ministry plans to issue a single smartcard for formal sector workers to help them avail social security benefits.

The ministry will seed employees' details like Aadhaar, PAN, bank account numbers as well as the portable Universal PF Account Number (UAN) and Employees State Insurance with the employees' smartcard to make them avail benefits under the various schemes, an official here told IANS.

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has issued over 40 million of these portable UANs to its subscribers and begun seeding these with the various know-your-customer (KYC) details like bank account, PAN and Aadhaar, the official said.

The EPFO does not issue any passbook, however, subscribers can login online into their PF accounts and take printouts of the statement.

The Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), which has a subscriber base of more than 18 million, issues smartcards to formal sector workers for availing health insurance benefits.

According to the official, the smart card scheme would be implemented after operationalising all the UANs and stabilisation of the database, all of which would require at least another year.