EPFO officers urge expert hiring as claim delays mount

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation, or EPFO, is a big government office in India that helps workers save money for their future, like a giant piggy bank.

A group of its workers, called the EPF Officers' Association, wrote a letter to the Labour Minister to say things are not going well.

They said the office does not have enough computer experts to run its modern technology systems.

The last time EPFO hired IT workers was in 2004, and even the top technology chief position has been empty for three years.

The office built a new computer system called CITES to pay people their savings faster, in just two or three days.

But after the system was partly switched on in July 2026, hundreds of thousands of claims got stuck for more than 20 days.

Big-city offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Gurugram are extra busy, but they have the same number of workers as they did back in 2008.

The workers also think the pension plan needs changes because lower interest rates make it hard to keep going.

Many members are complaining, and so far no one from the office or the government has replied to the letter.