EPFO Enhances Pensioners’ Ease of Living with Digital Life Certificate and Face Authentication Technology

New Delhi: The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has significantly improved the ease of living for its more than 78 lakh pensioners by adopting advanced digital technologies for the submission of Life Certificates. Previously, pensioners had to physically visit banks to submit their life certificates, which posed various challenges and grievances.

To address these issues, EPFO introduced the Digital Life Certificate (DLC) system in 2015, which relies on biometric authentication. Pensioners could submit DLCs at branches of banks, post offices, Common Service Centres, or EPFO offices where fingerprint or iris capture devices were available.

In a further step to simplify the process and minimize physical visits, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) developed the Face Authentication Technology (FAT). EPFO adopted this technology in July 2022, allowing pensioners to submit their DLCs from the comfort of their homes using face recognition technology on their smartphones. This innovative method requires only an Android-based smartphone, eliminating the need for elderly pensioners to travel to banks or post offices.

The face authentication process identifies pensioners through a facial scan using the smartphone camera, which is authenticated against UIDAI’s Aadhaar database using the Face Recognition App. Since its introduction, the use of FAT for DLC submission has seen remarkable growth. In 2022-23, 2.1 lakh pensioners used this method, and in 2023-24, this number surged to 6.6 lakh, reflecting a 200% year-on-year increase. This accounted for nearly 10% of the total DLCs received by EPFO in the last financial year, with around 60 lakh DLCs submitted overall.

To use this convenient technology, pensioners need to install two applications on their smartphones: “Aadhaar Face RD” and “Jeevan Pramaan.” The operator authentication for these apps is carried out through Aadhaar-linked mobile numbers. Detailed guidelines in the apps ensure a successful face scan, and upon completion, the DLC submission is confirmed on the mobile screen with the Jeevan Pramaan ID and PPO number.