Employee Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme (EDLI): How can you benefit from it?

Will : legal declaration of how a person wish his/her possession to be disposed after their death

Fund : An amount of money saved or collected for a particular purpose

Person(s) appointed by the account holder, to whom the securities/properties will be transferred in order to facilitate the transmission process among the legal heirs, in case of death of the owner of the security/property.

Person(s) who will be authorized by the policy holder to enjoy the benefits of the policy in case of the death of the policyholder or owner of the policy.

Employee Provident Fund is a retirement scheme for Private Sector and Public sector employees (who are not covered under pension plan), to save part of their salary every month, employer also contributes some amount in this account. This money will be given back to the employee, in case of unforeseen event happening to the employee and he cannot work temporarily or permanently [due to that event] or during his retirement

Do you know your EPF account, through its scheme called EDLI, provides you with the insurance cover up to Rs.6 Lacs??

In this scheme, you don’t have to invest a single dime from your pocket!!

Yes, it is true…

The Government of India has introduced the Employee Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme (EDLI) in 1976. Through this scheme, it is possible to get an adequate insurance cover with the value up to Rs. 6 Lacs!!

All the EPF members will automatically become a member of EDLI.

As you know, the long term security measures are becoming necessary for every individual due to various uncertainties of life in the modern world.

In this article, we will discuss EDLI in greater detail.

So, What is EDLI?

The EDLI is an insurance cover provided by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation(EPFO) for all the salaried employees in the private sector, who are members of the EPF scheme.

A lump-sum payment will be received by the registered in the event of the death of the person insured. The limit of the benefit is decided by the last drawn salary of the employee.

EDLI is applicable to all organizations registered under the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952. All such organizations must subscribe to this scheme and offer life insurance benefits to its employees. The EDLI scheme works in combination with EPF and EPS.

Key Features of the EDLI Scheme

i) All the EPF members are automatically enrolled in an EDLI Scheme.

ii) All employees with a “Basic Salary+DA” equal to or under Rs. 15,000/- per month can avail the benefits of the EDLI Scheme.

iii) In case the “Basic Salary+DA” goes above Rs.15,000 per month, the maximum benefit is capped at Rs.6,00,000/-. The detailed calculation will be described in the later section.

iv) All the Insurance benefits under the EDLI Scheme can be availed by the family members, nominee or the legal heirs of the EDLI member.

v) There is no minimum service period for availing the EDLI benefits.

vi) An employee doesn’t need to contribute any amount to EDLI. The entire contribution to EDLI is to be made by the employer and no hidden fee can be deducted from the employee’s salary.

vii) Maximum contribution of the employer towards EDLI is capped at Rs. 75 per month.

viii) There is an additional bonus of Rs.1,50,000/- available under the EDLI.

ix) An employer can opt for another group insurance scheme, but the benefits offered must be equal to or more than those offered under EDLI.

x) The claim amount under ELDI is 30 times the average monthly salary (Basic Pay + DA) in the past 12 months.

Contribution of an Employer towards Employee’s EPF account

As mentioned earlier, the EDLI corpus is maintained entirely by an employer.

0.5% of your ‘Basic Pay + DA’ will be deposited to your EDLI account by the employer.

The prime objective of the EDLI scheme is to offer financial security to the family members of the policy-holder.

EDLI Scheme is transferable with any change in the job. The new employer will continue to make payments on the existing account, defined under a single UAN.

For more insights and clarity on your EPF Account, you can read this Comprehensive guide on EPF. Here you will learn all the features and benefits of your EPF account.

Eligibility Criteria to avail EDLI benefits

Following persons are eligible to apply for claiming insurance benefits under the EDLI Scheme:

Members of the family (Nominees) nominated under the EPF Scheme.
In case of no nomination, the members of the family including spouse and children less than 25 years of age will avail the EDLI benefits.
In case, the deceased has no family and no nomination, legal heir will receive EDLI benefits based on the family situation of the EDLI member.
Guardian of a minor nominee/family member/legal heir

How to Claim EDLI Benefits?

Those who are eligible to avail EDLI benefits, as discussed in the above section has to fill the Form 5 IF, to get the insurance benefits after the death of the EDLI member.

The claim form has to be signed and certified by the employer.

In case there is no employer, the form has to be attested by anyone of the following:

Any Gazetted Officer
Magistrate
MLA or MP
Bank Manager (where the account was maintained)
President of Gram Panchayat
Chairman / Secretary / Member of Municipal or District Local Board
Postmaster or Sub Postmaster
Member of Regional Committee of EPF

➥ Form 5 IF can be filled along with the Form 20 towards EPF withdrawal claim in case of the deceased member.

➥ Form 5 IF can also be filled with Form 10C/Form10D to claim benefits of all the three schemes (EPF, EPS, and EDLI) in one go.

The claimant must submit all the documents along with the completed form to the regional EPF Commissioner’s Office for processing of the claim.

Any additional documents required by the authority must be furnished at earliest to process the claim.

Once all the documents are provided and the claim is accepted, the EPF commissioner must settle the claim within 30 days from the receipt of the claim. Otherwise, the claimant is entitled to interest @12% p.a. Till the date of actual disbursal.

Documents Required for payout under EDLI

The claimant has to submit the following documents along with the Form 5 IF to get the amount disbursed under the EDLI scheme:

Death Certificate of the member
Guardianship certificate if the claim on behalf of a minor family member/nominee/legal heir is by other than the natural guardian.
Succession certificate in case of a claim by the legal heir.
Copy of a cancelled cheque of the bank account in which the payment has opted.
In case the member was last employed in the establishment exempted under the EPF Scheme 1952, the employer of such establishment should furnish the PF details of last 12 months under the Certificate part and also send an attested copy of the Member’s Nomination Form.

Calculation of EDLI Payout

The nominee will receive the EDLI payout in the event of the death of an EDLI member. Insurance amount at pay-out is calculated as shown below:

[Average Monthly Salary of an Employee for the last 12 months] x 30 + Bonus Amount of ₹ 1,50,000/-

Therefore, the insurance amount that the nominee of a deceased member gets is calculated as 30 times the average monthly salary in the last 12 months of employment, plus a bonus amount of up to ₹1,50,000 is also paid to the claimant under this scheme. The maximum average monthly salary is capped at ₹15,000/-

If the average monthly salary of an employee is ₹ 15,000

So, 30 times the salary will be 30 x ₹ 15,000 = ₹ 4,50,000

After adding the bonus of ₹1,50,000, the amount will become ₹6,00,000/-

Thus, the total amount payable under this scheme to the beneficiary is ₹ 6,00,000/-

Conclusion

So, we hope that the above article has given you clear insights into the EDLI Scheme.

EPF is an excellent scheme which provides you with the Pension benefits through its EPS Scheme, and insurance benefits through its EDLI Scheme, without your single penny of investment in EPS or EDLI.

If you have any further queries on EDLI Scheme, feel free to post them below, in the comment section.