new delhi retirement fund body epfo settled 1068 lakh claims in september and of these over 97 per cent were settled within mandated time of 20 days during the month 1068 lakh claims were settled and out of the same an overwhelming 9743 per cent were settled within the newly mandated time of 20 days employees provident fund organisation epfo said in a release today epfo has brought down the period of claim settlement to 20 days from 30 days earlier the total settlement of claims for the first half of the financial year aprilseptember reached 6622 lakh the service standard delivery has improved by leaps and bounds and as a result more than 41 per cent of the settlement happened in just 3 days it added likewise 80 per cent of the claims were settled within 10 days epfo said also the retirement fund body said that instructions have been issued for making payment using neft facility of banks to ensure safe secure and quick delivery of the insurance amount to the beneficiary with this in all the three schemes run by epfo ie epf eps and edli the payments are made to the beneficiary through emode said the release also 19000 grievances were resolved during the month and less than 3000 grievances were left pending in all the field offices of the organisation it added further it was directed that the timeline of seven days for resolution of grievances should be adopted by field offices to the extent possible epfo also said that the epf benefits will be extended to certain class of establishments like those financed wholly by grantsinaid of central or state government public religious charitable trusts or endowments including places of worship further to facilitate small establishments in fulfilling the procedural requirements relating to the universal account number uan project efpo has decided that the field offices of epfo will assist such small establishments to digitally authenticate their kyc details using the digital signature available with the field offices this is expected to provide a major relief to small employers as the requirement of having their own digital signature for authenticating kyc details of their employees now longer exists the release added