EPFO Circular: How to De-Link a Wrong Member ID (MID) from Your UAN

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has extended its Member ID (MID) de-linking functionality to now cover cases where wrong MIDs were created without a member’s knowledge — even when contributions exist against those MIDs.

Why does this matter?

It’s not uncommon for a member’s Universal Account Number (UAN) to get incorrectly linked with an establishment they never actually worked at. This circular enables members to formally request removal of such erroneous MIDs through the EPFO Member Portal.

Before you apply — check eligibility

A de-linking request will be blocked if any of the following apply to the MID in question: the Date of Joining (DOJ) is before 31 December 2016, a claim or transfer is in a settled or pending state, or contributions have been received more than 6 times.

How the process works

The workflow depends on the contribution history against the MID.

If there are no contributions — the simplest case. The member logs into the EPFO Unified Member Portal, navigates to View → Service History, clicks De-link on the relevant MID, selects a reason, provides Aadhaar-based OTP consent, and the MID is removed immediately.

If contributions exist (up to 2 times) — the request is forwarded to the employer’s portal. If the employer approves within 2 weeks, the MID is de-linked directly.

If contributions exist (more than 2 but up to 6 times), or if the employer rejects or doesn’t act within 2 weeks — the request is escalated to the Regional/Field Office, where it passes through a Dealing Assistant (DA-Compliance) → Section Supervisor (SS-Compliance) → APFC/RPFC-II (Compliance). The APFC/RPFC-II has the final authority to approve or reject.

One critical warning

Once a MID is successfully de-linked, it cannot be re-linked to the same UAN. All funds under that MID are forfeited, since the member is formally declaring they have no right to those funds. Do not initiate this process unless you are absolutely certain the MID does not belong to you.

EPFO has noted that separate instructions will be issued regarding the transfer of balances from de-linked MIDs to the Social Reserve Fund (SRF).

Please find the official notification below:

WSUCircular_DelinkingOfMIDs_13042026