#update: i now have pins from two of my employers other sites. i want to get ones from the other two sites also but they’re far away

[oh2e]

My favourite customers are the ones who, upon seeing my trans, bród and aroace pins, go “I love your pins!”

[investedin]

FAQs: EPF Withdrawal Due To Coronavirus

While the pandemic is on the rise, the government has made some changes in certain rules. These changes would help the citizens in facing this pandemic. One of the major changes that the government has made is in the EPF withdrawal rules.

We know that an employee can only withdraw from the EPF account after attaining the age of 54. But, while the EPFO was making these rules, they even added some exceptions to it. According to the exceptions, a person can withdraw money for medical needs and many more. These exceptions are clearly mentioned in the EPF Act.

The government has now added another rule to the EPF Act. According to the new rule, a person can withdraw the EPF amount during the time of the pandemic.

They can do so by selecting the “Outbreak of pandemic (COVID-19)” option. This rule applies to all employees. Moreover, the amount which the person will withdraw will be free from any kind of taxes.

But, people are in confusion and have tons of questions. To answer all these questions, the government decided to explain the whole rule in the form of FAQs. These FAQs were designed based on the most common questions related to the rule. It also consisted of the whole process. Here, the government has not only answered the questions but has even explained the rules.

But, before jumping into the FAQs, it is important to know the standard EPF withdrawal rules. It would help the person in knowing the exact process for EPF withdrawal. The new rule is like the previous rule but has some slight changes.

EPF FAQs For COVID-19

The recent changes in the EPF withdrawal rule have created confusion amongst the common people. To clear this confusion, EPFO issued a set of FAQs with answers. These FAQS will help you in understanding all the rules and regulations more simply.

1. The link ‘Know You UAN’ is not available on the unified portal. Is approaching the employer for this the only option?

If the ‘Know your UAN’ link is not available in the unified portal, you must follow the steps below. a. Visit the official website of the unified member portal. b. Enter your member ID, Aadhar card number or PAN. c. Now, enter your personal details like name and date of birth. Make sure that the details you are entering the match with your EPFO records. d. Now, select the “Get authorization pin” option. e. The website will send you a pin on your registered mobile number. f. Enter the pin in the dialogue box. After doing this, you would get your UAN on your registered mobile phone.

2. I have already applied advance for illness in March 2020, which is pending. I want to apply for an advance to fight the COVID pandemic now. What should I do?

Even if you have applied for an advance that is pending, you can apply for the COVI-19 advance. The government has allowed the employees to apply for the advance for the pandemic.

3. KYC updation needs approval by the employer by using his DSC. When the establishment is closed and there is no employer, who is to approve the same?

The EPFO has switched to the digital platform which has various benefits. Even if the establishment is closed and no employer is present, you can still update your KYC. The website will send a notification to the employer. The employer will approve it and then your KYC updating process will start.

4. For filing the claim, a copy of the cheque with the name of member or copy of the passbook is to be uploaded. Member does not have a name on his cheque leaf and it is now difficult to get it from the bank. Even going to the bank and getting an attested copy of the bank statement is not easy as banks are far away. What is the other option that can be made available?

As per the rules of EPFO, the employee must upload a cheque leaf which consists of his/her printed name. Another option is, the employee can upload the first page of the bank passbook or bank statement. Ensure that the passbook or bank statement should have name, account number and the IFSC code of the bank. This rule is important to check that the bank account details mentioned in the application matches the KYC details. It would avoid any kind of wrong payment.

5. I have left the service but have not yet availed the final PF withdrawal benefits. Can I still avail of the COVID advance?

Yes, you can still avail for the COVID advance as you have not yet withdrawn your PF funds. You are still a PF member, as you have not claimed the funds, and every PF member is eligible for the COVID advance.

6. My COVID claim has been rejected due to member details mismatch. How can I rectify this issue?

If your application is rejected due to details mismatch, you can update the details by visiting the e-sewa portal. Visit the website and then update the details after which you can file the claim again.

7. How can I file a COVID claim through the UMANG app?

For filing a COVID claim through the UMANG app, you need to follow the below steps.

a. Select the EPFO option in the UMANG app.

b. Now, select the “request for advance (COVID-19)” option.

c. After selecting the option, you have to enter your UAN details. Now you have to select the “Get OTP” option. You will receive the OTP on the phone number which is registered with UAN. Enter the OTP and login to your account.

d.After logging in, you have to provide the last 4 digits of your bank account. Now, from the drop-down menu, select the member ID. 

e. After doing this, click on the “proceed for claim” option.

f. In the form, enter your address and then click on “next”.

g. You have to upload an image of a cheque. Make sure that the cheque consists of your name and the bank account number. After filling all the details, the website will file your claim

8. I have a balance available in my account. How many times can I get an advance to fight COVID?

You can only apply for the COVID-19 advance once. Even if you have balance in your account, you cannot apply for the claim more than once.

9. What is the last date for applying for COVID advance?

You can apply for the COVID advance as long as the pandemic stays. This claim is available for all the employees and there is no last date for applying till now

10. I have two different UANs. The first UAN is linked with one PF member ID and the second is linked with 2 different member IDs. Can I avail COVID advance benefits? How to get maximum benefit in this case?

Yes, you can avail the COVID advance even in such conditions. But, if you need maximum benefits, you need to transfer all the previous member IDs to your latest member ID. It would help you in getting the most benefit during filing for a claim. For transferring all the member IDs to the latest ID, you need to file for a transfer claim. After the transfer is over, you would see your entire PF amount on the latest member ID. By using this member ID, you can file for an advance and get the most benefit out of it.

11. I have a balance of INR 100000 in my PF account and applied for INR 75000 advance for COVID. At the rate of 75%, I should get INR 75000. Why a much lesser amount has been credited to my account?

The reason why you got a lesser amount is that only 75% of the total amount is the limit. You would only get 75% of the total EPF amount for the COVID advance. Besides that, if your 75% of the amount is more than 3 months of basic salary, then you would only get the 3 months salary. Say, if your monthly salary is INR 20000, then you would only get INR 60,000 as an advance. But, if your monthly salary is INR 30,000 or more, then the advance you will get will only be INR 75,000.

12. How To File EPF COVID Claim? I am not able to file the COVID claim. Please help me.

Here is the simple way which would help you to file for the COVID advance.

a. First login to the member interface of the unified portal which is the official website of EPFO.

b. Now, select the “online services” option after which you need to click on “Claim” (Form-31,19,10C& 10D).

c. You would find a new page. Here you have to enter your bank account number. The website will verify the bank account number.

d. After verification, you would have to select the “Proceed for the claim” option.

e. From the drop-down menu, select the PF Advance (form 81) option.

f. Now, select the purpose of advance as Outbreak of pandemic (COVID-19).

g. In the dialogue box, enter the amount that you need and then upload a scanned copy of your cheque. Make sure that the cheque consists of your name and bank account number. After doing that, fill your address.

h. Select the “Get Aadhar OTP” option. The website will send an OTP to your registered phone number.I. Enter the OTP on the screen. Your claim will get submitted.

13. Why your toll-free number is not accessible?

Due to the ongoing situation, the contact services are down. All these services will resume in a short time. But, you can contact us through Facebook or Twitter. Our social media handle is “socialepfo.” You can even state your questions at epfigms.gov.in.

14. I work in a company in Jammu which was covered under the J&K PF Act. Since last year this company is covered under the Employees Provident Fund Act, 1952. Can I claim for fighting COVID pandemic?

Yes, you can claim for COVID advance as the company has registered under EPF act 1952 and you are a PF member.

15. I have applied for COVID epidemic advance. How to check the status of my claim?

You can check the status of your claim by visiting this site- https://passbook.epfindia.gov.in/MemberPassBook/Login.

Here, you would see various options. Select the “Online Services” option. After that click on track claim status. Here you need to fill your UAN number or other details and then you can see the status of your claim.

16. I need to contact the EPF office through email or phone. Please provide me with the contact details of the EPF office.

For contacting the EPF office, you can visit the site- https://www.epfindia.gov.in/site_en/Contact_us.php.

You would see a new page where you need to select the zonal office where your company is present. After doing that, click on the regional/district office. It would provide you with their contact details of the EPF office in which your company has registered.

17. I live in city A and work in city B. However, the head office of my company is in city C. Which EPF office has to be contacted for any matter?

In this case, you have to visit the EPF office where your company has registered itself. If you don’t know the EPF office where the company has registered, you can find it by visiting this site- https://unifiedportal-epfo.epfindia.gov.in/publicPortal/noauth/misReport/home/loadEstSearchHome?

a. Now follow the steps below to find the EPF office in which your company has registered.

b. After visiting the above website, you have to enter the PF code of the establishment. If you don’t know the PF code of the company, you can even enter the name of the company.

c. Enter the security code and then select the “search” option.

d. The details of the company will appear on the screen.

e. Now, you have to confirm the establishment ID of the company. After that, confirm the name and address as stated in the screen.

18. You claim to settle COVID advance claims within 72 hours? It is over 4 days when I applied. I have still not received the money in my bank account. Why?

As per the recent changes in the rules, the EPFO only takes 3 days to settle the claim. Within this time, the EPFO sends the cheque to the bank. Here, the bank takes around 2 to 3 days to credit the amount in the account. You would be able to get the advance in a day or two.

19. I have worked for two companies and working in the third one now. How to get PF accumulations of earlier companies transferred to present one so that I can file a claim for COVID advance?

You can transfer the amount from the previous PF account to your new account if all the details are same. You can apply for the transfer through online process. You have to visit the e-sewa portal and then apply for the transfer. Here, make sure that your UAN is linked with your Aadhar card.

20. Can You Apply For COVID-19 Advance If EPF Withdrawal Is Delayed?

As per the recent changes, a person can apply for a claim even if his/her previous claims are in pending conditions.

With the rise in the pandemic, the government is trying to help employees with financial support. due to this reason, it has made some changes in the EPF rules. Now, as per the new rules, anyone can apply for an advance from EPF due to the pandemic.

Even if your EPF withdrawal is pending, you can still apply for an advance. Select the “Outbreak of pandemic (COVID-19)” option for claiming an advance.

The approval for the COVID claim will take 3 days which is way faster than the normal withdrawal process. Moreover, the EPFO has conveyed all the PF holders to apply for a claim due to the pandemic. The EPFO has even clarified that even if an employee has a pending claim, he/she can apply for the COVID claim.

21. How EPFO Settles Tons Of Cases For COVID-19 Claims?

With the pandemic rising, people are in dire need of financial support. It is not easy for the people to bear the cost of the treatment and survive the lockdown without any job. To help the employees in some way, the government made changes in the EPF withdrawal rules.

It is well known that a person can only withdraw from the EPF account at the age of 55. An employee can withdraw some amount from the EPF account in case of emergencies. But, now the government has stated that any PF member can withdraw 75% of his/her PF amount as COVID advance. Even if an employee has not completed 5 years of service, he/she can withdraw money from the EPF account under the COVID emergency.

Till now, the government has settled around 140,000 EPF cases. Besides that, the COVID claim takes hardly 3 days to settle. It means that if you apply for COVID claim, the EPFO will complete the process in 3 days. It is possible due to the automation process that the EPFO is using.

After that, the bank will credit the amount in more 2-3 days. In simple language, you would get the amount within a week. Even if you are having any kind of pending claim, you can still apply for the COVID claim.

22. What are COVID-19 Tax Relaxations?

The government has even made some changes in the tax system of EPF withdrawal. If a person is withdrawing money from the EPF account before 5 years of service, then he/she has to pay tax on that amount. But, as per the new rules, there will be no taxes on the EPF withdrawal until the pandemic is over. Besides that, here are some changes that the government made on the tax system due to the pandemic.

TDS/TCS Rate Reduction

a. As per the new rules, there will be a reduction of 25% on the existing tax rates. This reduction is made for non-salary payments received by the residents.

b. The payment for certain transactions like commission and brokerage is eligible for a reduction in TDS rates. This reduction will be applicable until the end of the financial year of 2020

c. The rate for tax for any kind of receipts is also reduced to 25%With the reduction in TDS and TCS, there will be a relaxation on the liquidity. The TDS on mutual funds, dividend interest, and may more mentioned under Section 194A is reduced to 7.5%. Earlier this tax rate was 10%e. The TDS on e-commerce, payment for immovable property is reduced from 1% to 0.75%

23. What are Extension Of Due Dates?

a. The due date for all income tax returns for the financial year 2019-2020 is extended to November 30. Before, it was from July 31 % October 31.

b. The audit date for tax is now extended from September 30 to October 31.

c. The date for assessments which are getting barred on September 30, is now rescheduled to December 31. The ones getting barred on March 31, 2021, is not rescheduled to end of September 2021.

24. I have only worked for 3 years in a company. Can I apply for withdrawal for COVID advance?

Yes, you can apply for COVID advance even if you have worked for less than 5 years. The scheme is available for all PF members.

25. Do I have to pay taxes if I withdraw money from the EPF account?

No. The EPFO has stated that nobody has to pay taxes for withdrawing money from the EPF account during the pandemic.

26. I am working in a company which is stated as exempt. Will I be able to apply for withdrawal during the pandemic?

Yes, even if your company is exempted from EPFO, you can still apply for a withdrawal from the PF account of your company.

27. How much will I get if I claim for the COVID advance?

As per the rules of EPFO, if you are applying for a COVID advance, then you will either get 75% of the total amount in your EPF account or 3 months of equal salary. The EPFO will see the amount which is lesser and will credit it to your account.

28. I am a self-employed person but I do have a PPF account. Can I file for a claim for COVID advance? How much amount will I get?

If you are having a PPF account, then you can file for a COVID advance. As you are self-employed and do not have any fix salary, you would get 75% of the amount in your EPF account

29. How much time will it take for the EPFO to accept my claim?

Due to the pandemic, the EPFO is accepting claims within 3 days. Within 3 days, the EPFO will verify and accept your claim for advance and then send the cheque to the bank. The bank will take around 2 to 3 days to credit the amount in your account.

30. How To Withdraw Money From EPF Account?

A person can only withdraw money from the EPF account under emergencies. Else, the valid age for withdrawing money is 54. This particular rule was made to reduce premature withdrawals.

But, the main question here is how can a person withdraw money from the EPF account? But, before that, it is important to know the type of emergencies that EPF has in its rule book.

31. How to change the name of a married woman in UAN?

The process of changing the name in UAN is like that in Aadhar. The married woman has to apply online for the updating process.

The employer will approve the request digitally after which the process will start. You would have to submit the correction request either online or offline.

You also have to provide a copy of the marriage certificate and any document which states that the person had a different name before marriage. You can use the school records, birth certificate or even PAN for this process.

32. What are the Situations Under Which Employees Can Withdraw Money From EPF Account?

Below are the situations under which the EPFO allows the employee to withdraw money.

a. Construction of a house or for purchasing a house.

b. If the company is locked or closed for more than 15 days. Besides that, if the company is not providing any kind of compensation during this period.

c. If the employee has been removed from the company and the employee has filed a case against this.

d.If the establishment is closed for more than 6 months and the employee is unemployed.

e. If any calamity occurs.

f. For purchasing equipment for a physically disabled employee. Under all these cases, the employee can withdraw money from the EPF account.

These are the cases that the EPF Act recognises as “emergencies.” Along with these, there are also emergencies like wedding, medical needs and as such. The employee can also withdraw money under these circumstances.

33. What Are The Documents Required For Withdrawal?

There are certain documents that are important for the withdrawal process. These documents are mandatory and one cannot get the amount without these documents. Below are the essential documents which an employee needs to provide before the EPFO.

i. A scanned copy of passbook or a cheque. You need to upload the scanned copy in the e-sewa portal.

ii. The UAN should be active.

iii. Aadhar card should be linked with UAN.

iv. Make sure to provide correct bank details in the UAN.

v. Your EPF account should be JYC-compliant.

vi. The mobile number registered with Aadhar card should be active.

vii. If you are retiring, make sure that the DOB is present in the EPFO record. Along with that, the date of joining and leaving should also be there.

These are some of the essential documents which the employee needs to take care of. Once the verification of the documents is over, you can easily claim for the withdrawal.

34. What is the Guide To Claim For Withdrawal From EPF Account?

There is a certain process that an employee needs to follow for claiming a withdrawal. Below is the detailed process which would help you to withdraw money from your EPF account.The first step is to visit the e-sewa portal where all the EPF related work happens. The website is https://unifiedportal-mem.epfindia.gov.in/memberinterface

First you have to log in to the portal. You can do so by using your UAN. Enter the UAN, password and the security code.After successfully logging into the portal, click on the option, “Online Services.” After that, select the “Claim (Form 31,19,10C & 10D).”The “claim” option will take you to a new webpage.

In this webpage, you have to enter your bank account number which is present in the UAN account.

Click on “verify.” The portal will verify whether both the bank account details match or not.

After the verification is over, you have to agree to the terms and conditions of the EPFONow, click on the “Proceed for online claim” option on the new page.

You would be able to see a drop-down menu with certain situations. Select the emergency, for which you are withdrawing money from the EPF account. The drop-down menu will only consist of options for which you are eligible.

After selecting the option, you have to provide your complete address in the blank space. Moreover, you also have to state the amount required and upload a scanned copy of the cheque.

After uploading the required documents, select the “Get Aadhar OTP”.Now, you will get an OTP in the registered mobile number.

Enter the OTP and then select the claim option. After following the steps, the EPFO will receive your application. It will look into the application, verify the details, and then credit the amount to your account in a few days.

35. How To Track The Claim Status?

You can check the status of your application from the online portal of e-sewa. You have to visit the official website for checking the claim. After that, click on the “Track Claim Status” option, which you can find under the “Online Services” tab.

The tracker will show you the process of your application. It would notify you about the approval status of the claim. Furthermore, it would even help you know when you will receive the amount in your bank account.

36. What Is The Scenario Of EPF Withdrawal Before 5 Years Of Service?

The EPFO has made a rule that an employee cannot withdraw money before 5 years of service. If due to any cause, an employee wishes to withdraw money before the threshold period, it would be taxable. In simple language, a person has to pay tax for withdrawing the money from EPF account before 5 years of service.

a. But, there is also an exception to this case. If the EPF amount is less than INR 50,000, then the amount will be free from TDS. Here are the rules which you need to keep in mind while withdrawing money in this case.

b. The employee has to provide detailed reasoning of the amount in the PF account every year. This rule came into action recently in ITR forms 2 and 3. If you are withdrawing money before the threshold period, you have to provide details on it.

c. The EPFO will also check for any extra taxes that are liable on the withdrawal amount. If there any chances of extra taxes, then you have to pay the tax.

d. The employee has to remember that the amount in the EPF account is divided into 4 parts. The parts are the amount contributed by the employee, by the employer and the interest in each part.

e. If the employee has claimed for exemption on EPF as per the section 80C, then all 4 parts are taxable

f. If the employee has not made any claim for exemption, then only the employee’s part will be free from tax.

g. The tax on the withdrawal amount will solely depend on the current income slab of the employee’s. The tax on the withdrawal amount will be applied to the year of withdrawal. But, the consideration of the tax will be done every year. These are some of the most essential rules to remember while withdrawing money. These rules are applicable if the person is withdrawing money before 5 years. If the person is claiming withdrawal after 5 years of completion, the EPF amount will be free from taxes.

37. What Is The Withdrawal Procedure From EPF Account After Retirement?

An employee after his/her retirement has to claim the EPF money from the EPFO. But, there are some rules that the employee needs to keep in mind. These rules will help the employee in knowing when to withdraw the money after retirement. a. The employee has to claim fort the EPF amount when he/she reaches the age of 58. The EPFO made this rule while forming the EPF Act.

b. The EPF amount has both employees as well as the employer’s share of the amount. It also has the interest amount on both parts.

c. If the employee has worked for more than 10 years in an organisation, then he/she is eligible for the EPS amount. EPS is the pension scheme made by the EPFO, where the employee will get a monthly pension amount. The employee even gets the benefits of pension after retirement.

d. If the employee has worked for more than 10 years in an organisation, he/she can withdraw both EPF and EPS amount.

e. The withdrawal amount from the EPF account, after retirement, is free from taxes. It means that the person does not have to pay any taxes on the EPF amount after retirement.

f. But, the interest that is earned on the EPF amount is taxable. If the employee does not claim the EPF amount within 3 years of retirement then he/she has to pay tax on the interest amount.

g. An employee can claim for the EPF amount through the online process after retirement.These rules are for the safety of the employee. One can claim for the EPF amount after retirement, through the online withdrawal process. In the portal, the person would be able to see the “retirement withdrawal” option. By selecting the option, the employee will get the amount within a span of a few days.

38. What Are The PF Withdrawal Rules For The Year 2020?

With the ongoing pandemic, EPFO has made some changes in the EPF withdrawal rules. The government has added new rules in the EPF Act so that employees can withdraw money during the pandemic.

As per the new rules, the statutory rate of contribution has reduced to 10%. Earlier this rate was 12% for both employees and employer. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the government has taken these steps for the well-being of the employees.

But, the reduction does not apply to the state pubic or central public organizations. Moreover, the government is going to contribute to the EPF accounts too. But, only employees with less than INR 15,000 will get this benefit.As per the new rules, anyone can withdraw money from the EPF account during the time of the pandemic.

Even if a person has not worked for 5 years, he/she can withdraw the amount under COVID-19 relief scheme. The government has even stated that the EPF withdrawal during this time will be free from taxes.

Important Rules About EPF Withdrawal

Below are the 10 important rules that you need to follow while withdrawing from the EPF account.

a. An employee cannot withdraw money from the EPF account while he/she is working in the company. Only in case of retirement or dire emergencies, the person can withdraw money.

b. The EPFO has allowed partial withdrawal from the EPF account in case of an emergency. During this pandemic, an employee can partially withdraw money from EPF account.

c. A person can withdraw around 90% of the EPF amount after reaching the age of 54. He/she can withdraw the remaining amount at the time of retirement.

d. If a person remains unemployed for more than a month, then he/she can withdraw 75% of the money from EPF. But, the employee has to declare his/her unemployment to the EPFO.

e. It is well known that if an employee withdraws money before the age of 54, then TDS is applicable. But, if the amount that the employee is withdrawing is less than INR 50,000 then it will be free from taxes.

The government is trying its best to help the employees during this pandemic. As the rules are now different for EPF withdrawal, many people were confused. To avoid such confusion, the EPFO decided to release a set of FAQs with answers. In these FAQs, a person can understand the whole process easier. The pandemic has brought down the economy and to help people in surviving this pandemic, the EPFO decided to allow for EPF withdrawal.

We know that this is a high alert emergency and people would need money. If you are applying for a COVID claim now, you will get the amount in your account within a week. The EPFO is made to help people in dealing with financial needs and this is the time to help the people.

Moreover, the advance for COVID-19 is non-refundable. It means that a person does not have to repay the amount. Anyone can apply for an advance by selecting the “Outbreak of pandemic (COVID-19)” option and get an advance. It is highly suggested that an employee should only apply for an advance when it is of utmost necessity.

source http://invested.in/faqs-epf-withdrawal-due-to-coronavirus/

[radhikaschauhan]

FAQs: EPF Withdrawal Due To Coronavirus

While the pandemic is on the rise, the government has made some changes in certain rules. These changes would help the citizens in facing this pandemic. One of the major changes that the government has made is in the EPF withdrawal rules.

We know that an employee can only withdraw from the EPF account after attaining the age of 54. But, while the EPFO was making these rules, they even added some exceptions to it. According to the exceptions, a person can withdraw money for medical needs and many more. These exceptions are clearly mentioned in the EPF Act.

The government has now added another rule to the EPF Act. According to the new rule, a person can withdraw the EPF amount during the time of the pandemic.

They can do so by selecting the “Outbreak of pandemic (COVID-19)” option. This rule applies to all employees. Moreover, the amount which the person will withdraw will be free from any kind of taxes.

But, people are in confusion and have tons of questions. To answer all these questions, the government decided to explain the whole rule in the form of FAQs. These FAQs were designed based on the most common questions related to the rule. It also consisted of the whole process. Here, the government has not only answered the questions but has even explained the rules.

But, before jumping into the FAQs, it is important to know the standard EPF withdrawal rules. It would help the person in knowing the exact process for EPF withdrawal. The new rule is like the previous rule but has some slight changes.

EPF FAQs For COVID-19

The recent changes in the EPF withdrawal rule have created confusion amongst the common people. To clear this confusion, EPFO issued a set of FAQs with answers. These FAQS will help you in understanding all the rules and regulations more simply.

1. The link ‘Know You UAN’ is not available on the unified portal. Is approaching the employer for this the only option?

If the ‘Know your UAN’ link is not available in the unified portal, you must follow the steps below. a. Visit the official website of the unified member portal. b. Enter your member ID, Aadhar card number or PAN. c. Now, enter your personal details like name and date of birth. Make sure that the details you are entering the match with your EPFO records. d. Now, select the “Get authorization pin” option. e. The website will send you a pin on your registered mobile number. f. Enter the pin in the dialogue box. After doing this, you would get your UAN on your registered mobile phone.

2. I have already applied advance for illness in March 2020, which is pending. I want to apply for an advance to fight the COVID pandemic now. What should I do?

Even if you have applied for an advance that is pending, you can apply for the COVI-19 advance. The government has allowed the employees to apply for the advance for the pandemic.

3. KYC updation needs approval by the employer by using his DSC. When the establishment is closed and there is no employer, who is to approve the same?

The EPFO has switched to the digital platform which has various benefits. Even if the establishment is closed and no employer is present, you can still update your KYC. The website will send a notification to the employer. The employer will approve it and then your KYC updating process will start.

4. For filing the claim, a copy of the cheque with the name of member or copy of the passbook is to be uploaded. Member does not have a name on his cheque leaf and it is now difficult to get it from the bank. Even going to the bank and getting an attested copy of the bank statement is not easy as banks are far away. What is the other option that can be made available?

As per the rules of EPFO, the employee must upload a cheque leaf which consists of his/her printed name. Another option is, the employee can upload the first page of the bank passbook or bank statement. Ensure that the passbook or bank statement should have name, account number and the IFSC code of the bank. This rule is important to check that the bank account details mentioned in the application matches the KYC details. It would avoid any kind of wrong payment.

5. I have left the service but have not yet availed the final PF withdrawal benefits. Can I still avail of the COVID advance?

Yes, you can still avail for the COVID advance as you have not yet withdrawn your PF funds. You are still a PF member, as you have not claimed the funds, and every PF member is eligible for the COVID advance.

6. My COVID claim has been rejected due to member details mismatch. How can I rectify this issue?

If your application is rejected due to details mismatch, you can update the details by visiting the e-sewa portal. Visit the website and then update the details after which you can file the claim again.

7. How can I file a COVID claim through the UMANG app?

For filing a COVID claim through the UMANG app, you need to follow the below steps.

a. Select the EPFO option in the UMANG app.

b. Now, select the “request for advance (COVID-19)” option.

c. After selecting the option, you have to enter your UAN details. Now you have to select the “Get OTP” option. You will receive the OTP on the phone number which is registered with UAN. Enter the OTP and login to your account.

d.After logging in, you have to provide the last 4 digits of your bank account. Now, from the drop-down menu, select the member ID. 

e. After doing this, click on the “proceed for claim” option.

f. In the form, enter your address and then click on “next”.

g. You have to upload an image of a cheque. Make sure that the cheque consists of your name and the bank account number. After filling all the details, the website will file your claim

8. I have a balance available in my account. How many times can I get an advance to fight COVID?

You can only apply for the COVID-19 advance once. Even if you have balance in your account, you cannot apply for the claim more than once.

9. What is the last date for applying for COVID advance?

You can apply for the COVID advance as long as the pandemic stays. This claim is available for all the employees and there is no last date for applying till now

10. I have two different UANs. The first UAN is linked with one PF member ID and the second is linked with 2 different member IDs. Can I avail COVID advance benefits? How to get maximum benefit in this case?

Yes, you can avail the COVID advance even in such conditions. But, if you need maximum benefits, you need to transfer all the previous member IDs to your latest member ID. It would help you in getting the most benefit during filing for a claim. For transferring all the member IDs to the latest ID, you need to file for a transfer claim. After the transfer is over, you would see your entire PF amount on the latest member ID. By using this member ID, you can file for an advance and get the most benefit out of it.

11. I have a balance of INR 100000 in my PF account and applied for INR 75000 advance for COVID. At the rate of 75%, I should get INR 75000. Why a much lesser amount has been credited to my account?

The reason why you got a lesser amount is that only 75% of the total amount is the limit. You would only get 75% of the total EPF amount for the COVID advance. Besides that, if your 75% of the amount is more than 3 months of basic salary, then you would only get the 3 months salary. Say, if your monthly salary is INR 20000, then you would only get INR 60,000 as an advance. But, if your monthly salary is INR 30,000 or more, then the advance you will get will only be INR 75,000.

12. How To File EPF COVID Claim? I am not able to file the COVID claim. Please help me.

Here is the simple way which would help you to file for the COVID advance.

a. First login to the member interface of the unified portal which is the official website of EPFO.

b. Now, select the “online services” option after which you need to click on “Claim” (Form-31,19,10C& 10D).

c. You would find a new page. Here you have to enter your bank account number. The website will verify the bank account number.

d. After verification, you would have to select the “Proceed for the claim” option.

e. From the drop-down menu, select the PF Advance (form 81) option.

f. Now, select the purpose of advance as Outbreak of pandemic (COVID-19).

g. In the dialogue box, enter the amount that you need and then upload a scanned copy of your cheque. Make sure that the cheque consists of your name and bank account number. After doing that, fill your address.

h. Select the “Get Aadhar OTP” option. The website will send an OTP to your registered phone number.I. Enter the OTP on the screen. Your claim will get submitted.

13. Why your toll-free number is not accessible?

Due to the ongoing situation, the contact services are down. All these services will resume in a short time. But, you can contact us through Facebook or Twitter. Our social media handle is “socialepfo.” You can even state your questions at epfigms.gov.in.

14. I work in a company in Jammu which was covered under the J&K PF Act. Since last year this company is covered under the Employees Provident Fund Act, 1952. Can I claim for fighting COVID pandemic?

Yes, you can claim for COVID advance as the company has registered under EPF act 1952 and you are a PF member.

15. I have applied for COVID epidemic advance. How to check the status of my claim?

You can check the status of your claim by visiting this site- https://passbook.epfindia.gov.in/MemberPassBook/Login.

Here, you would see various options. Select the “Online Services” option. After that click on track claim status. Here you need to fill your UAN number or other details and then you can see the status of your claim.

16. I need to contact the EPF office through email or phone. Please provide me with the contact details of the EPF office.

For contacting the EPF office, you can visit the site- https://www.epfindia.gov.in/site_en/Contact_us.php.

You would see a new page where you need to select the zonal office where your company is present. After doing that, click on the regional/district office. It would provide you with their contact details of the EPF office in which your company has registered.

17. I live in city A and work in city B. However, the head office of my company is in city C. Which EPF office has to be contacted for any matter?

In this case, you have to visit the EPF office where your company has registered itself. If you don’t know the EPF office where the company has registered, you can find it by visiting this site- https://unifiedportal-epfo.epfindia.gov.in/publicPortal/noauth/misReport/home/loadEstSearchHome?

a. Now follow the steps below to find the EPF office in which your company has registered.

b. After visiting the above website, you have to enter the PF code of the establishment. If you don’t know the PF code of the company, you can even enter the name of the company.

c. Enter the security code and then select the “search” option.

d. The details of the company will appear on the screen.

e. Now, you have to confirm the establishment ID of the company. After that, confirm the name and address as stated in the screen.

18. You claim to settle COVID advance claims within 72 hours? It is over 4 days when I applied. I have still not received the money in my bank account. Why?

As per the recent changes in the rules, the EPFO only takes 3 days to settle the claim. Within this time, the EPFO sends the cheque to the bank. Here, the bank takes around 2 to 3 days to credit the amount in the account. You would be able to get the advance in a day or two.

19. I have worked for two companies and working in the third one now. How to get PF accumulations of earlier companies transferred to present one so that I can file a claim for COVID advance?

You can transfer the amount from the previous PF account to your new account if all the details are same. You can apply for the transfer through online process. You have to visit the e-sewa portal and then apply for the transfer. Here, make sure that your UAN is linked with your Aadhar card.

20. Can You Apply For COVID-19 Advance If EPF Withdrawal Is Delayed?

As per the recent changes, a person can apply for a claim even if his/her previous claims are in pending conditions.

With the rise in the pandemic, the government is trying to help employees with financial support. due to this reason, it has made some changes in the EPF rules. Now, as per the new rules, anyone can apply for an advance from EPF due to the pandemic.

Even if your EPF withdrawal is pending, you can still apply for an advance. Select the “Outbreak of pandemic (COVID-19)” option for claiming an advance.

The approval for the COVID claim will take 3 days which is way faster than the normal withdrawal process. Moreover, the EPFO has conveyed all the PF holders to apply for a claim due to the pandemic. The EPFO has even clarified that even if an employee has a pending claim, he/she can apply for the COVID claim.

21. How EPFO Settles Tons Of Cases For COVID-19 Claims?

With the pandemic rising, people are in dire need of financial support. It is not easy for the people to bear the cost of the treatment and survive the lockdown without any job. To help the employees in some way, the government made changes in the EPF withdrawal rules.

It is well known that a person can only withdraw from the EPF account at the age of 55. An employee can withdraw some amount from the EPF account in case of emergencies. But, now the government has stated that any PF member can withdraw 75% of his/her PF amount as COVID advance. Even if an employee has not completed 5 years of service, he/she can withdraw money from the EPF account under the COVID emergency.

Till now, the government has settled around 140,000 EPF cases. Besides that, the COVID claim takes hardly 3 days to settle. It means that if you apply for COVID claim, the EPFO will complete the process in 3 days. It is possible due to the automation process that the EPFO is using.

After that, the bank will credit the amount in more 2-3 days. In simple language, you would get the amount within a week. Even if you are having any kind of pending claim, you can still apply for the COVID claim.

22. What are COVID-19 Tax Relaxations?

The government has even made some changes in the tax system of EPF withdrawal. If a person is withdrawing money from the EPF account before 5 years of service, then he/she has to pay tax on that amount. But, as per the new rules, there will be no taxes on the EPF withdrawal until the pandemic is over. Besides that, here are some changes that the government made on the tax system due to the pandemic.

TDS/TCS Rate Reduction

a. As per the new rules, there will be a reduction of 25% on the existing tax rates. This reduction is made for non-salary payments received by the residents.

b. The payment for certain transactions like commission and brokerage is eligible for a reduction in TDS rates. This reduction will be applicable until the end of the financial year of 2020

c. The rate for tax for any kind of receipts is also reduced to 25%With the reduction in TDS and TCS, there will be a relaxation on the liquidity. The TDS on mutual funds, dividend interest, and may more mentioned under Section 194A is reduced to 7.5%. Earlier this tax rate was 10%e. The TDS on e-commerce, payment for immovable property is reduced from 1% to 0.75%

23. What are Extension Of Due Dates?

a. The due date for all income tax returns for the financial year 2019-2020 is extended to November 30. Before, it was from July 31 % October 31.

b. The audit date for tax is now extended from September 30 to October 31.

c. The date for assessments which are getting barred on September 30, is now rescheduled to December 31. The ones getting barred on March 31, 2021, is not rescheduled to end of September 2021.

24. I have only worked for 3 years in a company. Can I apply for withdrawal for COVID advance?

Yes, you can apply for COVID advance even if you have worked for less than 5 years. The scheme is available for all PF members.

25. Do I have to pay taxes if I withdraw money from the EPF account?

No. The EPFO has stated that nobody has to pay taxes for withdrawing money from the EPF account during the pandemic.

26. I am working in a company which is stated as exempt. Will I be able to apply for withdrawal during the pandemic?

Yes, even if your company is exempted from EPFO, you can still apply for a withdrawal from the PF account of your company.

27. How much will I get if I claim for the COVID advance?

As per the rules of EPFO, if you are applying for a COVID advance, then you will either get 75% of the total amount in your EPF account or 3 months of equal salary. The EPFO will see the amount which is lesser and will credit it to your account.

28. I am a self-employed person but I do have a PPF account. Can I file for a claim for COVID advance? How much amount will I get?

If you are having a PPF account, then you can file for a COVID advance. As you are self-employed and do not have any fix salary, you would get 75% of the amount in your EPF account

29. How much time will it take for the EPFO to accept my claim?

Due to the pandemic, the EPFO is accepting claims within 3 days. Within 3 days, the EPFO will verify and accept your claim for advance and then send the cheque to the bank. The bank will take around 2 to 3 days to credit the amount in your account.

30. How To Withdraw Money From EPF Account?

A person can only withdraw money from the EPF account under emergencies. Else, the valid age for withdrawing money is 54. This particular rule was made to reduce premature withdrawals.

But, the main question here is how can a person withdraw money from the EPF account? But, before that, it is important to know the type of emergencies that EPF has in its rule book.

31. How to change the name of a married woman in UAN?

The process of changing the name in UAN is like that in Aadhar. The married woman has to apply online for the updating process.

The employer will approve the request digitally after which the process will start. You would have to submit the correction request either online or offline.

You also have to provide a copy of the marriage certificate and any document which states that the person had a different name before marriage. You can use the school records, birth certificate or even PAN for this process.

32. What are the Situations Under Which Employees Can Withdraw Money From EPF Account?

Below are the situations under which the EPFO allows the employee to withdraw money.

a. Construction of a house or for purchasing a house.

b. If the company is locked or closed for more than 15 days. Besides that, if the company is not providing any kind of compensation during this period.

c. If the employee has been removed from the company and the employee has filed a case against this.

d.If the establishment is closed for more than 6 months and the employee is unemployed.

e. If any calamity occurs.

f. For purchasing equipment for a physically disabled employee. Under all these cases, the employee can withdraw money from the EPF account.

These are the cases that the EPF Act recognises as “emergencies.” Along with these, there are also emergencies like wedding, medical needs and as such. The employee can also withdraw money under these circumstances.

33. What Are The Documents Required For Withdrawal?

There are certain documents that are important for the withdrawal process. These documents are mandatory and one cannot get the amount without these documents. Below are the essential documents which an employee needs to provide before the EPFO.

i. A scanned copy of passbook or a cheque. You need to upload the scanned copy in the e-sewa portal.

ii. The UAN should be active.

iii. Aadhar card should be linked with UAN.

iv. Make sure to provide correct bank details in the UAN.

v. Your EPF account should be JYC-compliant.

vi. The mobile number registered with Aadhar card should be active.

vii. If you are retiring, make sure that the DOB is present in the EPFO record. Along with that, the date of joining and leaving should also be there.

These are some of the essential documents which the employee needs to take care of. Once the verification of the documents is over, you can easily claim for the withdrawal.

34. What is the Guide To Claim For Withdrawal From EPF Account?

There is a certain process that an employee needs to follow for claiming a withdrawal. Below is the detailed process which would help you to withdraw money from your EPF account.The first step is to visit the e-sewa portal where all the EPF related work happens. The website is https://unifiedportal-mem.epfindia.gov.in/memberinterface

First you have to log in to the portal. You can do so by using your UAN. Enter the UAN, password and the security code.After successfully logging into the portal, click on the option, “Online Services.” After that, select the “Claim (Form 31,19,10C & 10D).”The “claim” option will take you to a new webpage.

In this webpage, you have to enter your bank account number which is present in the UAN account.

Click on “verify.” The portal will verify whether both the bank account details match or not.

After the verification is over, you have to agree to the terms and conditions of the EPFONow, click on the “Proceed for online claim” option on the new page.

You would be able to see a drop-down menu with certain situations. Select the emergency, for which you are withdrawing money from the EPF account. The drop-down menu will only consist of options for which you are eligible.

After selecting the option, you have to provide your complete address in the blank space. Moreover, you also have to state the amount required and upload a scanned copy of the cheque.

After uploading the required documents, select the “Get Aadhar OTP”.Now, you will get an OTP in the registered mobile number.

Enter the OTP and then select the claim option. After following the steps, the EPFO will receive your application. It will look into the application, verify the details, and then credit the amount to your account in a few days.

35. How To Track The Claim Status?

You can check the status of your application from the online portal of e-sewa. You have to visit the official website for checking the claim. After that, click on the “Track Claim Status” option, which you can find under the “Online Services” tab.

The tracker will show you the process of your application. It would notify you about the approval status of the claim. Furthermore, it would even help you know when you will receive the amount in your bank account.

36. What Is The Scenario Of EPF Withdrawal Before 5 Years Of Service?

The EPFO has made a rule that an employee cannot withdraw money before 5 years of service. If due to any cause, an employee wishes to withdraw money before the threshold period, it would be taxable. In simple language, a person has to pay tax for withdrawing the money from EPF account before 5 years of service.

a. But, there is also an exception to this case. If the EPF amount is less than INR 50,000, then the amount will be free from TDS. Here are the rules which you need to keep in mind while withdrawing money in this case.

b. The employee has to provide detailed reasoning of the amount in the PF account every year. This rule came into action recently in ITR forms 2 and 3. If you are withdrawing money before the threshold period, you have to provide details on it.

c. The EPFO will also check for any extra taxes that are liable on the withdrawal amount. If there any chances of extra taxes, then you have to pay the tax.

d. The employee has to remember that the amount in the EPF account is divided into 4 parts. The parts are the amount contributed by the employee, by the employer and the interest in each part.

e. If the employee has claimed for exemption on EPF as per the section 80C, then all 4 parts are taxable

f. If the employee has not made any claim for exemption, then only the employee’s part will be free from tax.

g. The tax on the withdrawal amount will solely depend on the current income slab of the employee’s. The tax on the withdrawal amount will be applied to the year of withdrawal. But, the consideration of the tax will be done every year. These are some of the most essential rules to remember while withdrawing money. These rules are applicable if the person is withdrawing money before 5 years. If the person is claiming withdrawal after 5 years of completion, the EPF amount will be free from taxes.

37. What Is The Withdrawal Procedure From EPF Account After Retirement?

An employee after his/her retirement has to claim the EPF money from the EPFO. But, there are some rules that the employee needs to keep in mind. These rules will help the employee in knowing when to withdraw the money after retirement. a. The employee has to claim fort the EPF amount when he/she reaches the age of 58. The EPFO made this rule while forming the EPF Act.

b. The EPF amount has both employees as well as the employer’s share of the amount. It also has the interest amount on both parts.

c. If the employee has worked for more than 10 years in an organisation, then he/she is eligible for the EPS amount. EPS is the pension scheme made by the EPFO, where the employee will get a monthly pension amount. The employee even gets the benefits of pension after retirement.

d. If the employee has worked for more than 10 years in an organisation, he/she can withdraw both EPF and EPS amount.

e. The withdrawal amount from the EPF account, after retirement, is free from taxes. It means that the person does not have to pay any taxes on the EPF amount after retirement.

f. But, the interest that is earned on the EPF amount is taxable. If the employee does not claim the EPF amount within 3 years of retirement then he/she has to pay tax on the interest amount.

g. An employee can claim for the EPF amount through the online process after retirement.These rules are for the safety of the employee. One can claim for the EPF amount after retirement, through the online withdrawal process. In the portal, the person would be able to see the “retirement withdrawal” option. By selecting the option, the employee will get the amount within a span of a few days.

38. What Are The PF Withdrawal Rules For The Year 2020?

With the ongoing pandemic, EPFO has made some changes in the EPF withdrawal rules. The government has added new rules in the EPF Act so that employees can withdraw money during the pandemic.

As per the new rules, the statutory rate of contribution has reduced to 10%. Earlier this rate was 12% for both employees and employer. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the government has taken these steps for the well-being of the employees.

But, the reduction does not apply to the state pubic or central public organizations. Moreover, the government is going to contribute to the EPF accounts too. But, only employees with less than INR 15,000 will get this benefit.As per the new rules, anyone can withdraw money from the EPF account during the time of the pandemic.

Even if a person has not worked for 5 years, he/she can withdraw the amount under COVID-19 relief scheme. The government has even stated that the EPF withdrawal during this time will be free from taxes.

Important Rules About EPF Withdrawal

Below are the 10 important rules that you need to follow while withdrawing from the EPF account.

a. An employee cannot withdraw money from the EPF account while he/she is working in the company. Only in case of retirement or dire emergencies, the person can withdraw money.

b. The EPFO has allowed partial withdrawal from the EPF account in case of an emergency. During this pandemic, an employee can partially withdraw money from EPF account.

c. A person can withdraw around 90% of the EPF amount after reaching the age of 54. He/she can withdraw the remaining amount at the time of retirement.

d. If a person remains unemployed for more than a month, then he/she can withdraw 75% of the money from EPF. But, the employee has to declare his/her unemployment to the EPFO.

e. It is well known that if an employee withdraws money before the age of 54, then TDS is applicable. But, if the amount that the employee is withdrawing is less than INR 50,000 then it will be free from taxes.

The government is trying its best to help the employees during this pandemic. As the rules are now different for EPF withdrawal, many people were confused. To avoid such confusion, the EPFO decided to release a set of FAQs with answers. In these FAQs, a person can understand the whole process easier. The pandemic has brought down the economy and to help people in surviving this pandemic, the EPFO decided to allow for EPF withdrawal.

We know that this is a high alert emergency and people would need money. If you are applying for a COVID claim now, you will get the amount in your account within a week. The EPFO is made to help people in dealing with financial needs and this is the time to help the people.

Moreover, the advance for COVID-19 is non-refundable. It means that a person does not have to repay the amount. Anyone can apply for an advance by selecting the “Outbreak of pandemic (COVID-19)” option and get an advance. It is highly suggested that an employee should only apply for an advance when it is of utmost necessity.

Via http://invested.in/faqs-epf-withdrawal-due-to-coronavirus/

source https://investedin.weebly.com/blog/faqs-epf-withdrawal-due-to-coronavirus

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT NEWS, RESOURCES & STUDIES, late April 2020

I hope everyone is well, and staying safe. The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown most of us off track in many areas, and for me, this blog was one of them. After a tumultuous few months, I have finally found the energy to edit this down - it is both way behind in some areas and overwhelmingly dense in others. 

The good news is that I plan on posting every week for the next little while, to provide more timely updates. That will sometimes mean more news and fewer “how-to” pieces, and some sections may be omitted some weeks. If there are topics you would find helpful during these uncertain times, please let me know. 

Hang in there, and remember to take care of yourself! We can get through this. 

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES 

COVID-19 Pandemic: For information on how various ecommerce entities are dealing with it, see below:

Etsy has a basic seller Help article (which they do update with new developments), and a larger collection of articles that includes data on current buying trends as well as info on how to sell masks on Etsy. 

eBay has an overview page linking to seller info including price gouging rules and shipping updates, as well as buyer info on purchases. They have also opened the “Up and Running” program to help small businesses moving online for the first time. Finally, they have offered free listings to different types of sellers, and just extended that program until the end of July. 

Amazon’s daily update page on COVID-19 developments, including charitable behaviour by the company, doesn’t even include third party sellers as a party they are concerned about. They’ve taken heavy criticism for firing a union activist, improper handling of virus outbreaks at its facilities, while not doing much for merchants since the site is over capacity. They were so overwhelmed that they limited Fulfilled by Amazon orders to essential goods only in March, leaving many merchants with no income.

Etsy CEO Josh Silverman is also lobbying for government support for self employed people such as ecommerce sellers, freelancers, contract workers etc. (unlike in some countries such as Canada, most self-employed Americans aren’t eligible to pay into employment insurance plans, something Silverman is asking for.) Here’s a video clip of Silverman being interviewed on the topic on Fox. He followed up with a letter to the EU. Etsy also started the “Stand With Small” Campaign to support small businesses, but their forum thread went so poorly they had to delete most of the replies & lock it. They’ve also launched new commercials for the pandemic era

Many small businesses are still in dire straights right now. Here are lists of artist/self-employed/small business supports, including funding and services, for Canadians and Americans. Etsy has also compiled the basic government benefit info for the US, the UK, France, Germany, and Canada. If you know of any other similar or more comprehensive resource lists, please let me know! 

ETSY NEWS 

By now you have heard that the Etsy Offsite Ads that many of us were supposed to start paying for April 14 have been delayed until May 1, but I have covered the basics in the first post and the highlighted posts here. (No, they are not investing $5 million in offsite ads this month; the $5 million is the money we would have paid in fees from April 14-30!) Now that Google Shopping will have free listings in the US as of April 27, everything may be up in the air. [I will update this post and my thread with any new information as it becomes available.]

In the aftermath of the outcry over the Offsite Ad fees, Shopify is taking a page out of Zibbet’s old playbook, by emailing Etsy sellers with information on how to migrate your listings from Etsy to a Shopify website. They’ve also posted info in their forum. 

In the most recent bad publicity for the platform, Etsy dropped the ball on the mask shortage, then picked up cause (getting some very good publicity) and now many the new mask sellers who oversold are having their money held & are frustrating thousands of buyers with with either poorly-made products or no product at all - well see how much more bad publicity that will bring.. First, the public was looking for masks to protect against COVID-19 on Etsy, and found some that claimed to work. “[M]ore than 200 postings for face masks have sprung up in the past two days [on Feb. 26]...Even as sites like Facebook and Amazon have added links and resources for learning more about COVID-19, Etsy has stayed quiet on any precautionary or educational measures.” An Etsy rep said “While face masks are allowed on Etsy, we prohibit any items that make medical claims. Our team is prioritizing taking down any listings that claim to protect against coronavirus." Etsy eventually realized that this was an opportunity to make money, so they are now encouraging sellers to post masks for sale.That’s getting a lot of positive media attention. “The website is becoming a go-to destination for homemade cloth masks. Etsy says there was an average of one mask-related search on the site every two seconds in March. Last week, more than 10,000 sellers sold at least one mask apiece.” Here’s a piece on Fox news [video and text] and another video, and one on CNBC [video and text].

They are also removing or at least de-indexing (removing from search) listings that mention the virus directly, and even use words such as “medical”, including in sentences such as “this is not a medical-grade mask.” Some sleep masks have been hit as well. Many of the shops were originally back up & running within a day of getting Etsy’s attention, but Trust & Safety is reportedly now backed up two weeks or more on this issue, leaving many sellers out of search and unable to sell. 

Some of the shops that have oversold or who received multiple bad feedbacks are now posting their stories in the forum as they look for ways to get their money released. The buyers who never received their purchases are finding these threads & asking what to do.This has the potential to turn out very badly for Etsy, although for the moment, the good coverage continues. 

(Mind you, other marketplaces also have to worry about price gouging on things like hand sanitizer, so the bad media isn’t all Etsy’s - but they get mentioned in that article as well. eBay has now gone as far as banning the sale of all hand sanitizer & disinfecting wipes. Meanwhile, Mercari also encouraged sellers to make masks, but is donating 50% of the fees they collect on these sales to a first responders charity until May 31. In short, there are ways to do this without looking greedy.)

Etsy had a decent 4th quarter in 2019; here is my thread, & here is Etsy’s dumbed down take. 

They then did an early April update: while March 2020 has been difficult, it was not as bad as many of us might have thought. “...in those moments when people's mindshare is elsewhere, we tend to see a significant drop in traffic to Etsy. We experienced that suddenly and strongly beginning on March 8th. And that hit a low point in the month of March, in the third week of March, when our Consolidated GMS for the week was negative 2%. So to dimensionalize that, we were averaging 41% Consolidated GMS growth in January and February, and it went down to negative 2% in the third week of March. …  So GMS Consolidated in the fourth week of March was up 27% year-over-year, but even in that fourth week, on the Etsy standalone site, we had one day that was a negative 4% day and another day, just a few days later, that was a positive 23% day.”

Note that if you use the auto-renew feature, your items will still renew when in vacation mode. 

I now know that  “birth flower jewelry” is a thing, and Etsy is getting 69% more searches for it than last year. Here are some other Etsy jewellery trends, with some suggested search terms.  A few of the tips there, including suggested keyword phrases, are also mentioned in the Mother’s Day Guide. 

Etsy also just released an article on what people are shopping for during the pandemic. “Wedding postponements have generated increased traffic for change-the-date cards in paper and digital formats. With many celebrations, including bridal showers, now taking place online, shoppers are looking for items like festive backdrops to embellish their virtual gatherings. 7,311% YoY increase in searches on Etsy containing “date change”

Reverb will now be offsetting the carbon emissions from its shipping, just like Etsy. 

If you want to drive traffic to your Etsy listings from Pinterest (through your own account or by being pinned by others), Etsy has some suggestions. 

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES 

The pandemic is changing Google search ranking & visibility; not all of the changes are the predictable ones. For example, “fashion and apparel” went up, even though people weren’t going outside or to work as much. 

Temporarily sold out items on your website (not your Etsy shop) need to be handled properly to maintain their SEO value. Some basic tips here. 

There are things you can do to improve your chances of having sitelinks show up for your website on Google search result pages. 

We talk a lot about backlinks coming into your site, but each page (at least the non-product pages) should probably have outbound links as well. Especially if you are blogging on a topic, remember that “[i]n all forms of publishing, it’s standard practice to cite authoritative, third-party sources to reinforce the points you make.” 

Speaking of backlinks, here is how to get them & even how not to get them. 

The changes to how Google treats no-follow links started last month, and if you were using no-follow to stop Google from crawling, you need to fix that. Apparently it won’t change ranking much.

There are new guides to keyword research almost every week, but this one from Backlinko is good for both newbies & more experienced folks. (He does make the very common error of stating that long tail keywords are longer phrases, but otherwise it is great.) Good suggestions on judging difficulty: “First, search for your keyword in Google.  Then, look at the sites ranking on the first page. (Not individual pages) If the first page is made up of uber authority sites (like Wikipedia), then you might want to cross that keyword off from your list ...But if you see a handful of smaller blogs on page 1, that’s a sign that you have a shot to hit the first page too.” Seriously, you need to read this one. 

And if you still haven't conquered the Google Keyword Planner for keyword research, here are some good tips and basic set-up instructions. Bonus: it also shows you how to use the tool for Google ads. 

I’m a big fan of using keyword research/tools for marketing & product ideas, and here is a similar thought: use SEO data to inform your marketing. 

When people say Google “crawls” your site, we mean with spiders. Seriously. Ok, they are actually bots, but still, they really are called spiders.

Google’s index will be entirely based on the mobile version of a website by this September. Right now, they are at 70%. If your site doesn’t work well on mobile, you have a few more months to correct that. 

Another reminder that generally, you don’t want Google to index your website’s internal search pages. 

You probably know that there are ways to optimize images on your website, called alt text, and here is a really good overview of how & why. (Note this doesn’t work for Etsy shops)

Another short video from the Google Webmaster team, this one on 301 redirects. 

The usual Google search change rumours are just odd right now.

If you feel you just don’t understand SEO, you can take one of these free online courses to learn more. 

(CONTENT) MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA (includes blogging & emails) 

The most popular hashtags are not always the best to use; read that & more tips on using hashtags on social media here. 

You don’t actually have to come up with blog post ideas yourself; there are multiple tools that can do it for you [infographic and text links]

An annual report on social media [text with a pdf download to your email account] finds that engagement is down on Instagram, contests & giveaways are the most popular brand posts, and “Carousels” get good attention on Instagram.

Email marketing is still one of the best ways to reach your customers; here’s what you need to think about as you design your campaigns, and how to get started. Every target market is different, so you should consider using A/B testing in your emails to figure out what yours responds to. 

Some interesting ideas for using Instagram Stories for market research.

Did you know you can edit your photos right within Instagram? (it starts with filters but moves to other editing)

Pinterest has a bunch of new features for retailers, including verified merchants, catalogues and ad retargeting. 60% of US women look at Pinterest at least occasionally, including 80% of mothers. But you might be surprised at what some of them are looking for: e.g., “Searches for how to ask for a raise at work are up 254%.” If you don’t know how to get more followers on Pinterest, check out this article. 

WhatsApp got caught with bad coding, allowing private groups to be indexed by Google. Don’t forget they are owned by Facebook. 

LinkedIn is testing their own version of Stories. So is Twitter. 

ONLINE ADVERTISING (SEARCH ENGINES, SOCIAL MEDIA, & OTHERS) 

Yes, there are reasons you might want to buy online ads for your business/brand name. 

If you do your own Google Ads, you will want to learn more about the new “optimization Score”.It gives you tips on parts of your Ads account you should work on to get better results. 

Also, you can find out more about how buyers behave after finding your ads through the Google Ads Attribution Report. 

If you are looking to spend money on ads, this comparison of Google Ads to Facebook/Instagram ads gives you a lot to think about. 

If Google won’t run your ads because it says they are for low-volume keywords, there are ways to fix the problem. 

While Facebook’s overall traffic is way up lately due to COVID-19, their ads are not, partially because they don’t run on some of its most popular features such as Messenger. 

STATS, DATA, OTHER TRACKING 

If you buy your own Google Ads, make sure to link them to your Google Analytics account to get the most data. Download the pdf of instructions written by Google. 

If you have fairly advanced knowledge of Google Analytics and coded it into your own website, here are 13 mistakes you might have made. [Don’t even read that unless you have some knowledge of coding websites. I’m not joking.]

Here’s an easier Google Analytics article for websites, much of which even applies to Etsy shops. 

Here’s an easy way to use Google Analytics to track your promotions, sales and ad campaigns. Some promotional tools do this for you, but not all. 

The Google Search Console now lets you download more data. 

There is a new stats program out called Plausible, which is simpler than Google Analytics & should not slow down your site as much. For those of you who don’t want tons of data & don’t like the cookie issues with GA, Plausible makes a compelling argument for you here. 

ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS 

The pandemic has helped consolidate Amazon’s position as the top ecommerce marketplace in many jurisdictions, and it is the only one that is trending upward in Google searches. As of March 24, searches for “Etsy” dropped 30%. (but I don’t think that is an indication that traffic dropped that amount - it may be less or more, depending on what percentage of buyers usually Google “Etsy”.)

Shopify launches were up 75% in the second week of April compared to the first week of March, in part due to many brick and mortar stores moving online. [While they are replacing in-person shopping, those new shops also increase our ecommerce competition - and some might stay online even once their physical locations reopen.] 

USPS is in financial trouble, and the pandemic is not helping. That affects everyone who ships to the US, not just US sellers. 

Walmart is working on a membership program similar to Amazon Prime. It may open soon, and “[p]erks could include unlimited same-day delivery on groceries and text-based shopping, the latter of which Walmart has tested through its now-defunct Jet Black shopping service. Later, prescription drug and gas discounts, and scan and go services, could be part of the program, according to Recode...Walmart has also unveiled a new third-party fulfillment service for its marketplace sellers — again a key feature of Amazon's model.”

Amazon & eBay told the US government they are working really hard to remove fakes from their platforms.  

eBay will be expanding its in-house payment system to Canada & Australia this year, making 5 countries in total, after the US, Germany and the UK. 

Shiptheory, a newer shipping integration, now includes Etsy & Squarepsace, in addition to eBay, Shopify and many others. The platform is free for users shipping only 200 orders a month, and has over a dozen carriers (not currently USPS or Canada Post, however).

If you are looking for something to do while sheltering in place, consider editing some of your product descriptions to drive more sales. If you are stuck for new ideas, it does include a template. 

BUSINESS & CONSUMER STUDIES, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE 

While some economic indicators dropped substantially in March, things are beginning to pick up in the US in the last half of April. Shopify reported “Black Friday level” numbers for the third week of April, for example. One likely reason is the US stimulus money being spent on non-essentials. 

A decent if short overview of what makes people decide to buy things: “Shopping activates the brain’s reward centers, causing a rush of the feel-good neurotransmitter dopamine” and “68 percent of millennial shoppers will make a reactive purchase as a result of FOMO” (fear of missing out). 

People are more likely to buy if you offer easy (or even free) returns. Yes, I realize most of us aren’t able to offer free returns, but the thinking behind this is worth reading about, because it is one of the advantages larger companies have over businesses like ours. We all need to be aware of our disadvantages, so we can counter them. “A December 2018 survey shares how a whopping 88 percent of shoppers want the ability to return their purchases, if desired, either by taking them to a physical store or using a shipping method that’s prepaid.” Also, “...the more liberal you are with your return policy, the more confident you will likely appear about the products you sell.”

There are now around 2 billion websites in the world, & 20 million ecommerce sites (although that was pre-pandemic). Make sure you know how to get customers and how to keep them coming back. (With some links to studies.) One of their 7 points is also return policy. It’s important, folks!

When developing your marketing and advertising plans, make sure you think about your buyers’ location. For example, some things are just going to be more popular in certain areas. 

More and more shoppers are ok with buying on social media instead of marketplaces & other websites. [study by Poshmark] Another interesting takeaway: “Gen Z closets are made up of 16.5% secondhand items, the most of any generation measured, followed by Gen X (14%), millennials (12.5%) and baby boomers (9.5%).”

Meanwhile, if you want to know more about millennials, here are 34 stats and facts you may be interested in. 

MISCELLANEOUS (including humour) 

With many workplaces asking employees to stay home due to the coronavirus, we’ve been seeing a lot more pieces on how to work from home effectively. This one is pretty good. 

LinkedIn has made several of their remote working courses available for free, including time management and various electronic tools. 

Doing more video chats lately? Here’s how to look good on a webcam. 

Understandably, Google cancelled its usual collection of April Fools jokes this year. Which leads me to this article on how to market during a pandemic, and this one. 

And here’s how to keep your customers afterwards. “Temporarily shift from the “fewer sales, higher profit” mentality to helping as many consumers as you can. That means focusing on orders more than revenue. Consumers are presumably putting off big-ticket purchases during Covid-19, anyway. Thus it makes sense to embrace smaller orders from first-time buyers to enable a long-term relationship.”

[medicalquack]

AMA and United Healthcare Combine Efforts to Once Again To Push CMS To Institute Algorithmic and ICD Coding To Rip Off Patients/Deny Access–It’s the Next Chapter of Excess Scoring in the US To Keeps Inequality/Segmentation Rolling

If you have not seen the latest with these two, take a look at to how they want to use segmentation for profit.  It is so much of a "One Trick Algo” World out there anymore, the can’t hardly create enough bullshit commentary to cover up what’s really going on.  These two have been doing stuff like this for years, as I’ve written about a lot of it during the active years of my blog.  Way back in the early days of small developers creating EMRs before the government got involved, there were many of us that just sat back and wondered why the AMA always showed full on preference for anything United Healthcare (namely the Ingenix subsidiary which was being run by former CMS director Andy Slavitt at the time) came out with.  It just went on and on and you too can search in the web’s archives and find a lot of it, as well as just searching my blog for that matter.  AMA has been making money selling Ingenix (now Optum) coding books forever on their site.  Here’s a link from 2010 below as an example of the cushy AMA/UNH relationship over the years. ClickFreeMD Selling Software EHR, Practice Management Bundled Records Solution–Emphasis on AMA Endorsement And Software “Powered” by Ingenix–Tethered or Untethered Now we have this data plague as I call it of an issue of Excess Scoring.  I wrote about that a few years ago as our entire country is totally whacked out on the fact that everything needs to be scored, and that’s not true at all, some of the best things in life are NOT scored.  Here’s some back links.  Excess Scoring of US Consumers, US Citizens-Scored into Oblivion By Proprietary Algorithms and Formulas, Never Duplicated or Tested for Accuracy-Profits of Big Business And A White House Executive Command To Continue the Abuse.. The End of “Consumer Common Sense” in the US-Fueled by Excess Scoring for Profit, Sustained By Media Publications Serving To Further The Inability For Simple Every Day Life Decisions… United Healthcare Now Offering Employers Wearable Wellness Devices- UnitedHealthcareMotion–More Data To Mine And Sell With Related Risk Assessment Scoring Processes About You-Excess Scoring Actually when I was communicating with a former CMS executive about this, they said it was right out of United Healthcare's 2010 report, the stratification report, which also went way over the top on telling people how UNH thought they should raise their kids and indeed this is right on the same line of thought with these ICD Codes.  Doctors, nurses alike think the the AMA and United Healthcare are out of their minds and can see especially with Part D, its a way to lop on more risk so UNH can bill the government more money, called RISK FIDDLING. So get a load of this nonsense on how the AMA and United Healthcare want to code you, so they can use the result sin run you through a ton of other data bases to deny or allow access.  That’s what this is all about if you haven’t figured it out yet.  You should also know that once you get coded or tagged with this nonsense coding and US caste system type of scores, that it never comes off.  You will be stuck with one of these balls and chains forever, so hey WTF, let’s score everyone with Z60.82 for Inadequate social interactions.  This is such a piss poor model that I bet even the Quants that created it must be cringing, you know they don’t have to like or believe all the crap their employers want them to do but they have families to feed.

You are already getting the crap scored out of you every time you fill a prescription, and yes it’s the PBMS using this scoring system that was created with Ingenix algorithms that were sold to Express Scripts in 2010, yeah another Andy Slavitt algo game for cash, as UNH made him and his former partner, Senator Warren’s daughter, Amelia quite wealthy in 1999 when UNH bought their company, which was basically nothing more than a script discount operation and they made money from the PBMs.  So here’s how the pharmacists are directed to “score” you or they can lose their jobs.  Patients Who Pay “Cash” When Filling Prescriptions Are Now Called “Outliers, Pharmacists Required to Fix Outliers as They Show Up As Non Medication Adherence Compliant With 5 Star Systems Full of Flawed Data… The bottom line here is that the AMA and United Healthcare are making complete fools of everyone thinking that some brainchild coding is going to change anything, as it won’t, it will more than likely end up costing more money as of course it will end up requiring software updates, right…LOL…and the AMA will get paid royalties for creating new CPT codes that will have to go along to match the ICD diagnosis codes so doctors can get paid to throw you under the Bad Algo Coding bus where you will not only see potential limitations in care today, but this will follow you forever and make it harder for you to jump through more algorithmic hoops that the Quants will model.  If you’re not getting this, then watch my video at the link below and then continue on to watch the 4 videos from others and see how far down in the algo toilet you might be.  Algorithms, Scoring Metrics, Privacy and more in today’s Healthcare business world–The Healthcare Algo Cartel Again I’ve been writing about algo abuse and and cheating code for years, and it’s happening everywhere, as with software you can do something about anything, create little virtual worlds where folks function and create new little virtual values, but what happens when the real world comes knocking?  The dupes sadly go click on One Trick Algos for even a deeper saturation of perception deception.  That’s what this coding BS for care here is all about and somebody needed to say it, as they are virtual values that will not end up helping you one bit, but the AMA and UNH will profit royally as they have practices algorithms deception for years.  I think today it’s only 15% of the MDs in the US are members of the AMA, so many have dropped out as it’s more of a lobby for money now versus representing doctors in the US and this movement has been going on for years.  UNH is and has been the king pin for Quant modelers for years so everything modeled mathematically from that corporation needs extensive scrutiny as it geared for shareholders first, patients second, the massive number of algorithmic subsidiaries tells that story well.  We need to index and license ALL data sellers so we can get an idea of what’s really going on in the black box scoring algorithms executing code unknown everyday, and remember we just see the front ends so remember there’s a whole other reality in how those algos collect your data, score you, screw you, etc. for the sake of corporate profits.  “One Trick Algo World” Needs to be Licensed and Indexed–Spurious Correlations “For Profit” Are Out of Control

via Blogger https://ift.tt/33ut09g

[nedsvallesny]

Equifax Breach Fallout: Your Salary History

In May, KrebsOnSecurity broke a story about lax security at a payroll division of big-three credit bureau Equifax that let identity thieves access personal and financial data on an unknown number of Americans. Incredibly, this same division makes it simple to access detailed salary and employment history on a large portion of Americans using little more than someone’s Social Security number and date of birth — both data elements that were stolen in the recent breach at Equifax.

At issue is a service provided by Equifax’s TALX division called The Work Number. The service is designed to provide automated employment and income verification for prospective employers, and tens of thousands of companies report employee salary data to it. The Work Number also allows anyone whose employer uses the service to provide proof of their income when purchasing a home or applying for a loan.

The homepage for this Equifax service wants to assure visitors that “Your personal information is protected.”

“With your consent your personal data can be retrieved only by credentialed verifiers,” Equifax assures us, referring mainly to banks and other entities that request salary data for purposes of setting credit limits.

Sadly, this isn’t anywhere near true because most employers who contribute data to The Work Number — including Fortune 100 firms, government agencies and universities — rely on horribly weak authentication for access to the information.

To find out how easy it is to view your detailed salary history, you’ll need your employer’s name or employer code. Helpfully, this page lets you look that up quite easily (although if you opt to list employers alphabetically by the fist letter of the company name, there are so many entries for each letter that I found Equifax’s database simply crashes half the time instead of rendering the entire list).

What’s needed to access your salary and employment history? Go here, and enter the employer name or employer code. After that, it asks for a “user ID.” This might sound like privileged information, but in most cases this is just the employees’s Social Security number (or a portion of it).

At the next step, the site asks visitors to “enter your PIN,” short for Personal Identification Number. However, in the vast majority of cases this appears to be little more than someone’s eight-digit date of birth. The formats differ by employer, but it’s usually either yyyy/mm/dd or mm/dd/yyyy, without the slashes.

Successful validation to the system produces two sets of data: An employee’s salary and employment history going back at least a decade, and a report listing all of the entities (ostensibly, the aforementioned “credentialed verifiers”) that have previously requested and viewed this information.

Once you’re successfully “authenticated,” the system asks you to change your PIN to something more secret than your birthday. When the default PIN is changed, The Work Number prompts users to select a series of six challenge/response questions, which Equifax claims will “improve the security of your data and create an extra layer of protection on your account.”

Unfortunately, consumers whose employee history is stored by this service effectively have no privacy or security unless they possess both the awareness that this service exists and the forethought to access their account online before identity thieves or others do it first.

The Work Number does allow employers to opt for TALX’s “enhanced authentication” feature, wherein after logging in with your employer ID and PIN (often the last four digits of an SSN plus the birth year), the system is designed to require the requester to respond to an email at a work address or a phone call to a work number to validate the login.

However, I did not find this to be the case in several instances involving readers whose employers supposedly used this enhanced authentication method. In cases where corporate human resources departments fail to populate employee email addresses and phone numbers, the system defaults to asking visitors to enter any email address and phone number to complete the validation. This is detailed here (PDF), wherein The Work Number states “if you do not have the required phone and e-mail information on file, you will be prompted to update/add your phone numbers/email addresses.”

Worse yet, while companies that use this service tend to vary their approaches to what’s required in terms of user IDs and PINs, a great many employers publish online detailed instructions on how to fill out these various forms. For example, the State of California‘s process is listed here (PDF); instructions for the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) are here; employees at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) can learn the steps by consulting this document (PDF). The process for getting this information on current and former UCLA employees is spelled out here. There are countless other examples that are easy to find with a simple Internet search.

Many readers probably consider their current and former salaries to be very private information, but as we can see this data is easily available on a broad spectrum of the working population in America today. The information needed to obtain it has been widely compromised in thousands of data breaches over the past few years, and the SSN and DOB on most Americans is for sale in a variety of places online. In short, if you can get these details from Equifax’s online service, so can anyone else.

Fortunately, you can reduce the likelihood that an acquaintance, co-worker, stalker or anyone else can do this by claiming your own account, changing the PIN and selecting a half-dozen security questions and answers. As always, it’s best not to answer these questions truthfully, but to input answers that only you will know and that can’t be found using social networking sites or other public data sources.

I could see this service potentially helping to create a toxic workplace environment because it offers a relatively simple method for employees to glean data about the salaries of their co-workers and bosses. While some people believe that companies should be more transparent about employee salaries, this data in the wrong hands very often generates a great deal of resentment and hostility among co-workers.

Employers who use The Work Number should strongly consider changing as many defaults as possible, and truly implementing the service’s enhanced authentication features.

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and as such KrebsOnSecurity will continue pointing readers to similar services that let anyone access your personal data armed with little more than static identifiers about you that should no longer be considered private. Although some readers may take issue with my pointing these out — reasoning that I’m only making it easier for bad people to do bad things — it’s important to understand that knowledge is half the battle: Planting your flag before someone else does is usually the only way to keep others from abusing such services to expose your personal information.

Related reading:

–USPS ‘Informed Delivery’ is Stalker’s Dream –Student Aid Tool Held Key for Tax Fraudsters –Sign Up at IRS.gov Before Crooks Do It For You –Crooks Hijack Retirement Funds via SSA Portal –Social Security Administration Now Requires Two-Factor Authentication –SSA: Ixnay on txt msg reqmnt 4 e-acct, sry

from Technology News https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/10/equifax-breach-fallout-your-salary-history/

[amberdscott2]

Equifax Breach Fallout: Your Salary History

In May, KrebsOnSecurity broke a story about lax security at a payroll division of big-three credit bureau Equifax that let identity thieves access personal and financial data on an unknown number of Americans. Incredibly, this same division makes it simple to access detailed salary and employment history on a large portion of Americans using little more than someone’s Social Security number and date of birth — both data elements that were stolen in the recent breach at Equifax.

At issue is a service provided by Equifax’s TALX division called The Work Number. The service is designed to provide automated employment and income verification for prospective employers, and tens of thousands of companies report employee salary data to it. The Work Number also allows anyone whose employer uses the service to provide proof of their income when purchasing a home or applying for a loan.

The homepage for this Equifax service wants to assure visitors that “Your personal information is protected.”

“With your consent your personal data can be retrieved only by credentialed verifiers,” Equifax assures us, referring mainly to banks and other entities that request salary data for purposes of setting credit limits.

Sadly, this isn’t anywhere near true because most employers who contribute data to The Work Number — including Fortune 100 firms, government agencies and universities — rely on horribly weak authentication for access to the information.

To find out how easy it is to view your detailed salary history, you’ll need your employer’s name or employer code. Helpfully, this page lets you look that up quite easily (although if you opt to list employers alphabetically by the fist letter of the company name, there are so many entries for each letter that I found Equifax’s database simply crashes half the time instead of rendering the entire list).

What’s needed to access your salary and employment history? Go here, and enter the employer name or employer code. After that, it asks for a “user ID.” This might sound like privileged information, but in most cases this is just the employees’s Social Security number (or a portion of it).

At the next step, the site asks visitors to “enter your PIN,” short for Personal Identification Number. However, in the vast majority of cases this appears to be little more than someone’s eight-digit date of birth. The formats differ by employer, but it’s usually either yyyy/mm/dd or mm/dd/yyyy, without the slashes.

Successful validation to the system produces two sets of data: An employee’s salary and employment history going back at least a decade, and a report listing all of the entities (ostensibly, the aforementioned “credentialed verifiers”) that have previously requested and viewed this information.

Once you’re successfully “authenticated,” the system asks you to change your PIN to something more secret than your birthday. When the default PIN is changed, The Work Number prompts users to select a series of six challenge/response questions, which Equifax claims will “improve the security of your data and create an extra layer of protection on your account.”

Unfortunately, consumers whose employee history is stored by this service effectively have no privacy or security unless they possess both the awareness that this service exists and the forethought to access their account online before identity thieves or others do it first.

The Work Number does allow employers to opt for TALX’s “enhanced authentication” feature, wherein after logging in with your employer ID and PIN (often the last four digits of an SSN plus the birth year), the system is designed to require the requester to respond to an email at a work address or a phone call to a work number to validate the login.

However, I did not find this to be the case in several instances involving readers whose employers supposedly used this enhanced authentication method. In cases where corporate human resources departments fail to populate employee email addresses and phone numbers, the system defaults to asking visitors to enter any email address and phone number to complete the validation. This is detailed here (PDF), wherein The Work Number states “if you do not have the required phone and e-mail information on file, you will be prompted to update/add your phone numbers/email addresses.”

Worse yet, while companies that use this service tend to vary their approaches to what’s required in terms of user IDs and PINs, a great many employers publish online detailed instructions on how to fill out these various forms. For example, the State of California‘s process is listed here (PDF); instructions for the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) are here; employees at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) can learn the steps by consulting this document (PDF). The process for getting this information on current and former UCLA employees is spelled out here. There are countless other examples that are easy to find with a simple Internet search.

Many readers probably consider their current and former salaries to be very private information, but as we can see this data is easily available on a broad spectrum of the working population in America today. The information needed to obtain it has been widely compromised in thousands of data breaches over the past few years, and the SSN and DOB on most Americans is for sale in a variety of places online. In short, if you can get these details from Equifax’s online service, so can anyone else.

Fortunately, you can reduce the likelihood that an acquaintance, co-worker, stalker or anyone else can do this by claiming your own account, changing the PIN and selecting a half-dozen security questions and answers. As always, it’s best not to answer these questions truthfully, but to input answers that only you will know and that can’t be found using social networking sites or other public data sources.

I could see this service potentially helping to create a toxic workplace environment because it offers a relatively simple method for employees to glean data about the salaries of their co-workers and bosses. While some people believe that companies should be more transparent about employee salaries, this data in the wrong hands very often generates a great deal of resentment and hostility among co-workers.

Employers who use The Work Number should strongly consider changing as many defaults as possible, and truly implementing the service’s enhanced authentication features.

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and as such KrebsOnSecurity will continue pointing readers to similar services that let anyone access your personal data armed with little more than static identifiers about you that should no longer be considered private. Although some readers may take issue with my pointing these out — reasoning that I’m only making it easier for bad people to do bad things — it’s important to understand that knowledge is half the battle: Planting your flag before someone else does is usually the only way to keep others from abusing such services to expose your personal information.

Related reading:

–USPS ‘Informed Delivery’ is Stalker’s Dream –Student Aid Tool Held Key for Tax Fraudsters –Sign Up at IRS.gov Before Crooks Do It For You –Crooks Hijack Retirement Funds via SSA Portal –Social Security Administration Now Requires Two-Factor Authentication –SSA: Ixnay on txt msg reqmnt 4 e-acct, sry

from Amber Scott Technology News https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/10/equifax-breach-fallout-your-salary-history/

[jennifersnyderca90]

Equifax Breach Fallout: Your Salary History

In May, KrebsOnSecurity broke a story about lax security at a payroll division of big-three credit bureau Equifax that let identity thieves access personal and financial data on an unknown number of Americans. Incredibly, this same division makes it simple to access detailed salary and employment history on a large portion of Americans using little more than someone’s Social Security number and date of birth — both data elements that were stolen in the recent breach at Equifax.

At issue is a service provided by Equifax’s TALX division called The Work Number. The service is designed to provide automated employment and income verification for prospective employers, and tens of thousands of companies report employee salary data to it. The Work Number also allows anyone whose employer uses the service to provide proof of their income when purchasing a home or applying for a loan.

The homepage for this Equifax service wants to assure visitors that “Your personal information is protected.”

“With your consent your personal data can be retrieved only by credentialed verifiers,” Equifax assures us, referring mainly to banks and other entities that request salary data for purposes of setting credit limits.

Sadly, this isn’t anywhere near true because most employers who contribute data to The Work Number — including Fortune 100 firms, government agencies and universities — rely on horribly weak authentication for access to the information.

To find out how easy it is to view your detailed salary history, you’ll need your employer’s name or employer code. Helpfully, this page lets you look that up quite easily (although if you opt to list employers alphabetically by the fist letter of the company name, there are so many entries for each letter that I found Equifax’s database simply crashes half the time instead of rendering the entire list).

What’s needed to access your salary and employment history? Go here, and enter the employer name or employer code. After that, it asks for a “user ID.” This might sound like privileged information, but in most cases this is just the employees’s Social Security number (or a portion of it).

At the next step, the site asks visitors to “enter your PIN,” short for Personal Identification Number. However, in the vast majority of cases this appears to be little more than someone’s eight-digit date of birth. The formats differ by employer, but it’s usually either yyyy/mm/dd or mm/dd/yyyy, without the slashes.

Successful validation to the system produces two sets of data: An employee’s salary and employment history going back at least a decade, and a report listing all of the entities (ostensibly, the aforementioned “credentialed verifiers”) that have previously requested and viewed this information.

Once you’re successfully “authenticated,” the system asks you to change your PIN to something more secret than your birthday. When the default PIN is changed, The Work Number prompts users to select a series of six challenge/response questions, which Equifax claims will “improve the security of your data and create an extra layer of protection on your account.”

Unfortunately, consumers whose employee history is stored by this service effectively have no privacy or security unless they possess both the awareness that this service exists and the forethought to access their account online before identity thieves or others do it first.

The Work Number does allow employers to opt for TALX’s “enhanced authentication” feature, wherein after logging in with your employer ID and PIN (often the last four digits of an SSN plus the birth year), the system is designed to require the requester to respond to an email at a work address or a phone call to a work number to validate the login.

However, I did not find this to be the case in several instances involving readers whose employers supposedly used this enhanced authentication method. In cases where corporate human resources departments fail to populate employee email addresses and phone numbers, the system defaults to asking visitors to enter any email address and phone number to complete the validation. This is detailed here (PDF), wherein The Work Number states “if you do not have the required phone and e-mail information on file, you will be prompted to update/add your phone numbers/email addresses.”

Worse yet, while companies that use this service tend to vary their approaches to what’s required in terms of user IDs and PINs, a great many employers publish online detailed instructions on how to fill out these various forms. For example, the State of California‘s process is listed here (PDF); instructions for the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) are here; employees at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) can learn the steps by consulting this document (PDF). The process for getting this information on current and former UCLA employees is spelled out here. There are countless other examples that are easy to find with a simple Internet search.

Many readers probably consider their current and former salaries to be very private information, but as we can see this data is easily available on a broad spectrum of the working population in America today. The information needed to obtain it has been widely compromised in thousands of data breaches over the past few years, and the SSN and DOB on most Americans is for sale in a variety of places online. In short, if you can get these details from Equifax’s online service, so can anyone else.

Fortunately, you can reduce the likelihood that an acquaintance, co-worker, stalker or anyone else can do this by claiming your own account, changing the PIN and selecting a half-dozen security questions and answers. As always, it’s best not to answer these questions truthfully, but to input answers that only you will know and that can’t be found using social networking sites or other public data sources.

I could see this service potentially helping to create a toxic workplace environment because it offers a relatively simple method for employees to glean data about the salaries of their co-workers and bosses. While some people believe that companies should be more transparent about employee salaries, this data in the wrong hands very often generates a great deal of resentment and hostility among co-workers.

Employers who use The Work Number should strongly consider changing as many defaults as possible, and truly implementing the service’s enhanced authentication features.

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and as such KrebsOnSecurity will continue pointing readers to similar services that let anyone access your personal data armed with little more than static identifiers about you that should no longer be considered private. Although some readers may take issue with my pointing these out — reasoning that I’m only making it easier for bad people to do bad things — it’s important to understand that knowledge is half the battle: Planting your flag before someone else does is usually the only way to keep others from abusing such services to expose your personal information.

Related reading:

–USPS ‘Informed Delivery’ is Stalker’s Dream –Student Aid Tool Held Key for Tax Fraudsters –Sign Up at IRS.gov Before Crooks Do It For You –Crooks Hijack Retirement Funds via SSA Portal –Social Security Administration Now Requires Two-Factor Authentication –SSA: Ixnay on txt msg reqmnt 4 e-acct, sry

from https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/10/equifax-breach-fallout-your-salary-history/

[bluefacecowboy-blog]

Weekly Update

Right, hi tumblr people (so Debbie and maybe Chelsea and really bored people scrolling through tumblr) hi to all!

Fun fun week! I really don’t have photos but who knows some might show up if I search twitter and I don’t know if I will yet!

Right so this week started bright and early and featured two big big events. The first: Bike to work celebration.

This was Monday Morning starting at 6:30 and since I forgot to make it start on my calendar at 6:15 I sorta arrived ten minutes late. Ugh I forgot to ground the reader right. Right so National Bike to Work Day is a day where all of the Trans Alt Staff gives out free breakfast along popular commuting corridors.

(For the reccord, in 97.87% of the time, I’m a big fan of editing just not in journaling because journaling seems a way to be free and just reccord or recount what’s going through your mind and yeah I know tumblr maybe isn’t the best place to go even on mimi rants like this but it is 1:45am and I’m playing great music.) By the time I finished this it was almost 3am. Good thing I get Monday’s off.

Right I was explicity told to be very topical so that should be the last of that, it’s just I really hate feeling constrained in journaling so back to topicalness) As well as giving out breakfast the day is also the day where T.A gets the most new members so that really was the focus going in and I have a wierd thing where I can sell things that I don’t believe in so much easily than things that I believe in because I have to think about the selling points. It definitely took me a minute (or the whole time) to get comfy selling membership because I know how great it is and I kinda assumed everybody else did. It was kinda crazy windy out and being right alongside the Hudson certainly added to things. It was a fun day though, roping people in with free breakfast and then asking them if they would be interested in signing a petition which I felt comfy with.

Rant about honesty below (in all likely just an idioscracy of mine)

(I will be very honest about everything probably too honest but I’m not supposed to be shit, like I have no problem saying mistruths in person but writing is so much more perinement and it is what lasts and I want to be honest because the exact words of a conversation even in the very best ones are just fading details but when you can scrutinze every word I find it so much more important to be honest, because whatever I did, I did and I own it, even if I’m not proud of it. Okay see this is how I can get side tracked for real, though if you are a future employer reading this then hello! Hope you are well whatever concerns you have about me in this reading have hopefully been worked on, okay for real back to it)

Rant over

It felt so much comfortable then selling membership after luring people with free breakfast (I hope this is topical and not too much) to try to get them to open their wallet, though I completely understand why we were all supposed to. A petition felt like a fair trade because then there is still good will and ease. Also it was too cold for ice coffee, if we had Friday’s wheather on Monday double the amount of people would have stopped. It was fun and very odd being finished with things before I generally wake up. (bold generally means the future, like there is no way I’m up before 10:30)

I had Tuesday off, so everything there is truly untopical.

Wednesday, that was site visit day and truthfully I was definitely at least vaguely nervous because I never had a formal realationship with Debbie and it was definitely more than a touch off balencing to see Debbie standing outside when my head was still in the books I was reading on the subway. Generally the time in the elevator is the time I need to ground myself in what is ahead but I didn’t have that so if I seemed a touch cold, I aplogize Debbie. The meeting went great, I really do enjoy the work I do at TransAlt (my head is just in the album playing now (25 annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert)) and my supervisor Chelsea is such a great boss. The enviroment (at TransAlt) is great because it really is a great match. Like there are people who are all working on politics but also on bikes and also on pedestrian plazas and making the streets more joyous (shit I’ve been at this half and hour and I still have the next two days) The meeting went very well after I got over the inital in my headness and was present in the meeting. The rest of the day was spent working on Buisness Outreach things or the rest of the day at the office was.

Fuck after I left the day was properly crazy! From the most boring of ceremonies (kinda like the first ten minutes of a Deblassio speech but for three hours) to immediately after having great conversations, looking forward to a double episode of Survivor, to on the whim of a moment joining a group of two incredibly interesting and brilliant strangers and a close friend of my father to suddenly entering this art studio looking for Five Five Freedie to entering a park I never knew existed (148 and Riverside, check this stuff out!) to five hours later lying on the bust of Houdini for a half hour nap.

OVER

Just know I was kinda wrecked and hungry for more adventure going into Thursday. This was my first day of outreach with my boss Chelsea and just going over the ropes of how to petition on the streets. Similarily to a lot of other things you just need to get into a grove and stay the hell out of your head and just ask people “Hey would you like wider sidewalks or summer streets” and then asking the same person to sign the petition. It was great fun to get to use signs I created and see the process through, after petitioning for two and half hours we called it quits and I felt really good about engaging passerbys.

There was a meeting afterward for Manhattan T.A volunteers and while the meeting was definitely productive I was in the complete wrong headspace and probably fairly exhausted ( I went to bed late the night before)

The next day was Bike Home From Work Party in the DUMBO Triangle. It was a real party with a D.J and fosball and food and a bunch of sponsors and free food. I was tasked with floating shift which means to help where needed and float throughout. There was only one person at the membership tent so I joined her there (The person was Kelsey and we really get along great and she is super easy to get along with) and we started pulling people in. I quickly found the best pitch was to call out asking someone if they were a TransAlt member and if they said no I quickly found the best to engage them was to inform them of the free beers for members, that got people listening so quickly it was great and I feel like as many if not the majority of non-members who I was able to engage with became members. If people said yes I would inform them of the free beer and make jovial conversation. There was a free t-shirt (exclusive to the week) so with the free beer and the men’s wearhouse coupon the membership paid for itself when people became members. (The following is half selling membership, 100% honest) Really becoming a member is a great deal, because for fifty dollars a year, or ten a month if you prefer, you get discounts at over a hundred thirty stores throughout the city and you support TransAlt’s lifesaving work! It was great fun working with Kelsey and later Libbey and the party was a great atmosphere and there was a competition to win a Free Brompton Bike, the person who could put out at the highest maxium wattage on a trainer would win a bike. I had the lead throughout the night but each time I checked I would see the person before me edge me out, literally every time! So I go to check in to see if I’m still in the lead. The person warming his legs is a mountain bike racer, so is friend who would go immediately after him. He goes and gives absolutely everything and ended up beating my wattage by 20 watts and I’m thinking alright with Daft Punk Playing I can probably beat that. His friend (person 1’s friend) goes up and blows person 1’s wattage up by fifty watts. Daft Punk is still playing. I have beaten person 2’s wattage a couple of times throughout my 18 years on my bike which is a sweet toy and fits me exactly to the millimeter. I start spinning. Another TransAlt emlpoyee is besides me. The time starts and I start giving it everything but my power was only slowly trudging upwards. I scream and give it one last primal effort. My wattage jumps surpassing person 1’s wattage. I keep digging and I can see person 2’s wattage slowly getting closer. 25. 23. 24. 17. 16. 15. Then I pop. Okay whatever bad story. The night was great! The director of membership was please with me and gave me this amazing pin that says

  “OFFFICAL MEMBER”

All Powerful Bike Lobby

Yeah the party was great fun, so much fun to see so many TransAlt members and people having fun with bikes. Yeah I’m sure this is like 10 times more reading then I should have made it. Mistakes were made. Have a great week! After reading it, this feels relatively constrained by my standards. There was also Staff Pizza which was very nice and just great conversation’s throughout the night, alright it is 3:01 I’m gonna hope this is alright in some way. Bye all!