New Delhi, Jun 10 (KNN) Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has settled 36.02 lakh claims, disbursing Rs. 11,540 crore to its members during the lockdown months of April and May 2020.

''Despite the lockdown restrictions, EPFO settled a staggering 36.02 lakh claims thereby disbursing Rs 11,540 crore to its members during April and May,'' an official statement from Labour Ministry said on Tuesday.

Out of these, over 15.54 lakh claims were settled under the recently COVID-19 advance under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) for which Rs 4580 crore were disbursed.

The COVID-19 advance under PMGKY was mainly availed by  EPFO members hit by the nationwide lockdown especially those with wages less than Rs 15,000 per month.

Under the scheme, eligible EPFO members were allowed to receive COVID-19 advance to the extent of basic wages and Dearness Allowance (DA) for three months or up to 75% of the amount standing to member's credit in the EPF account, whichever is less.

''It has provided timely relief to many workers, preventing them from falling into indebtedness,'' said EPFO.

''A look at wage slab-wise data points out that more than 74 % of total claimants during the lockdown period belonged to a slab of less than Rs.15,000 wage. The high-income category with wages more than Rs. 50,000 accounted for a mere 2% of the claimants. Approximately 24% of claims were made by the members with wages falling in the Rs.15,000 to less than Rs.50,000 category,'' the statement added.

Despite the shortage of manpower, EPFO significantly brought down the claim settlement period from around 10 days to roughly 3 days for COVID-19 advances.

EPFO also launched its first fully automatic claim settlement system in a record time of just five days and almost 54% of the COVID 19 claims are now being settled through the auto mode.

This system is expected to drastically cut down claim settlement time for EPFO in future.

With automation and a dedicated workforce, EPFO is settling more than 80,000 claims every working day amounting to about Rs. 270 crore, ensuring social security support for its members in times of crisis.