₹9,330 crore unclaimed in 30.9 lakh dormant EPF accounts, enough to build 3 IITs: RTI

Even as the government rolls out the EPF Scheme, 2026, to modernise provident fund services, RTI data has revealed that thousands of crores of workers' retirement savings remain locked in dormant accounts across the country.

More than ₹9,330 crore remains unclaimed in 30.91 lakh inoperative Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) accounts, according to a Right to Information (RTI) response accessed by India Today. The figures offer a snapshot of the scale of retirement savings that continue to remain unclaimed despite ongoing efforts by the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to simplify and digitise its services.

The disclosure comes soon after the Centre notified the Employees' Provident Fund Scheme, 2026, which came into effect on June 29, replacing the EPF Scheme, 1952. The new framework aims to streamline rules, reduce paperwork and improve digital access for nearly eight crore active EPFO subscribers.

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Over ₹9,300 crore still awaiting claims

According to the EPFO, as of March 31, 2026, there were 30,91,862 inoperative EPF accounts collectively holding an unclaimed balance of approximately ₹9,330 crore.

An EPF account typically becomes inoperative when no fresh contributions are received for an extended period and the account holder neither withdraws nor transfers the balance after changing jobs or retiring. In many cases, workers may lose track of older accounts created before the introduction of the Universal Account Number (UAN), while unclaimed balances may also arise when nominees do not complete claim formalities.

The latest figures indicate only a modest improvement over the previous financial year. On March 31, 2025, the EPFO had reported 31.83 lakh inoperative accounts containing ₹10,181 crore in unclaimed savings. Over one year, the number of dormant accounts declined by around 92,000, while the unclaimed corpus fell by ₹851 crore.

Even so, the RTI data shows that retirement savings worth thousands of crores remain outside the reach of their rightful beneficiaries.

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A huge corpus

The size of the unclaimed amount becomes more striking when viewed alongside public expenditure.

The ₹9,330 crore lying idle in dormant EPF accounts is almost equivalent to the ₹10,169 crore spent by the Centre on the UDAN regional connectivity scheme since its launch in 2016. It is also close to the Union government's allocation for Ayushman Bharat–Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) in the 2026-27 Budget.

According to a 2014 government estimate, establishing an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) cost around ₹1,750 crore. Adjusted for inflation, that works out to roughly ₹2,934 crore in 2026, meaning the unclaimed EPF corpus would be sufficient to fund three IITs, with over ₹500 crore still left over. The comparison is illustrative and highlights the magnitude of workers' retirement savings lying dormant.

EPFO declines to share some details

The RTI also sought year-wise data on inoperative EPF accounts over the last five financial years. However, the EPFO said it could provide information only for 2025 and 2026, stating that the Inoperative Accounts Cell (IAC) was established during 2025-26 and that information for earlier years is not maintained by the cell.

The organisation also declined to disclose the number of Aadhaar-linked dormant accounts, the amount lying in such accounts, and the status of auto-settlement, citing Section 8(1)(e) of the RTI Act, which exempts information held in a fiduciary relationship from disclosure.

Further, the EPFO said it does not maintain data on dormant accounts with balances exceeding ₹5 lakh in the format sought under the RTI application. The findings underscore that while EPF reforms are moving towards a more digital and efficient system, reconnecting millions of workers with their forgotten retirement savings remains a significant challenge.

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