(Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions)

Posted On: 29 DEC 2022

Significant Achievements at a glance

• Nationwide DLC Campaign benefitted 30 Lakh pensioners
• Anubhav Awards for the years 2020, 2021 & 2022 conferred
• Dissemination of best practices through Anubhav Awardees Speak – Webinar Series
• Launch of Integrated Pensioners’ Portal in collaboration with SBI & other banks will benefit 11 Lakh pensioners
• Bhavishya ranked 3^rd best portal under (NeSDA- 2021 ranking)
• 1^st Rashtriya Kirti Puraskar – Hindi
• Bankers’ Awareness Series Workshops started for reducing root cause of Bank related grievances filed on CPENGRAMS
• Under Special Campaign 2.0 60 Circulars issued for pensioners’ Ease of Living, 3578 physical files and 3836 e-files weeded out
• Pension Adalat held on May 5, 2022. 50 cities linked digitally through VC.
• Release of Departmental publication of NPS Rules on Good Governance Day
• Monthly Reporting by DoPPW started to Secretaries for CPENGRAMS/ Delayed PPOs

1. Nationwide DLC Campaign benefitted 30 Lakh pensioners – A nation-wide campaign was launched by this Department during 1-30 November 2022, for ‘Ease of Living’ of pensioners/family pensioners in 37 cities with a view to spread awareness amongst all the Central Government pensioners as well as the Pension Disbursing Authorities for use of Digital Life Certificate (DLC)/Face Authentication Technology to submit Life Certificate. Till 30th November, 2022, a total of 30.85 lakh central government pensioners have used DLC successfully, in which 2.88 lakh DLC has been created through Face authentication.
2. Anubhav Awards for the year, 2020, 2021 & 2022 conferred- The Anubhav portal was created on the call of Prime Minister in 2015 with a vision to preserve rich experience of retired official in digital form. An award scheme to incentivize and encourage more retiring employees to submit their write-ups was introduced in 2016. On 18^th of October, 2022, in a ceremony held in Vigyan Bhawan, wherein Dr. Jitendra Singh, MoS (PP) conferred Anubhav Awards for the years 2019, 20202 & 2021 on 15 awardees.
3. Dissemination of best practices through Anubhav Awardees Speak Webinar Series – This Department has launched a nationwide Webinar Series “Anubhav Awardees Speak” from the 22nd of November 2022. The webinar series aims to facilitate experience sharing with relevant stakeholders and concerned Ministries/Departments/Organizations. The webinar series will feature two Anubhav Awardees as speakers to share their experience and to motivate/raise awareness among retiring employees to fill up their own experiences on the Anubhav Portal. Webinars are scheduled to take place on a monthly basis. Two Webinars have been held so far this year, having a total of 1182 participants.
4. Launch of Integrated Pensioners’ Portal in collaboration with SBI & other banks benefitting 11 Lakh pensioners – INTEGRATED PENSIONERS’ PORTAL has been launched in October 2022 with an objective to provide post-retirement services to the pensioners, through Bhavishya platform, a truly single window portal for the pensioners. SBI pension seva portal has been integrated to provide Pensioner related services. All 17 Pension disbursing banks shall be integrated into this portal for Ease of Pensioners.
5. Bhavishya ranked 3^rd best portal under central govt. service portals by NeSDA- 2021 ranking
6. Bhavishya is a web based online pension sanction and payment tracking system developed by the Department. The system helps both the retiring employees and the administrative authorities to monitor and track delays. It has been ranked 3^rd best among central government service portals by the NeSDA-2021. Bhavishya has overall 86% compliance in the seven major categories and 100% compliance in End Service Delivery and Status Request Tracking. As on 01.12.2022, Bhavishya is running in the 97 Ministries/Departments/Apex Bodies and 817 attached offices through 7920 DDOs. Further, this application has so far issued more than 1,80,000 PPOs.
7. 1^st Rashtriya Kirti Puraskar – This Department was awarded the First Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar for remarkable achievement in the category of Ministry/Department with less than 300 employees by Shri Amit Shah, Union Minister of Home Affairs during the ‘Hindi Diwas’ Celebration organized by the Department of Official Language, Ministry of Home, at Surat (Gujarat). The award was received by Shri Sanjiv Narain Mathur, Additional Secretary (DOPPW).
8. Bankers’ Awareness Series for reducing root cause of grievances filed on CPENGRAMS –  This Department has started a series of Awareness Program for Central Pension Processing Centres and field functionaries handling pension related work in the banks. Since the major Pension Disbursing Authorities are banks, the first program in the series was held for officers of State Bank of India on 20^th and 21^st June, 2022 at Udaipur, covering the Northern region of the country. A team of officers from this Department took sessions on Bank related common pensioners’ grievances, Pension policy reforms & digitization regarding disbursement of pension to Central Government pensioners, with the objective of updating the field functionaries of State Bank of India. Special sessions were organized on Income Tax matters related to pensioners as well as Digital means of submitting the Annual Life Certificates. Chief Controller (Pension), CPAO shared the reasons leading to Pensioners’ grievances and suggested actions which may be taken by the bank for redressal.
9. Achievements under Special Campaign 2.0 – The Department has achieved the ambitious target set by it at the start of the campaign to bring down the pendency of Pension Grievances. The Department issued 60 circulars under Easing of Rules/Processes and resolved 4200 pending pensioner grievances. 6559 physical files were reviewed and out of these 3578 files were weeded out. Total 3836 E-Files have been closed in which action was completed. 35 Cleanliness Campaigns were conducted by the Department and Pensioners’ Associations across the country.
10. Pension Adalat – Pension Adalats were conducted across Ministries/Departments on a single day. May 5, 2022 throughout the country including all the Central Armed Police Forces as well as non-Civil Ministries viz., defence, railways, telecom and posts to resolve chronic grievances of Central Government Pensioners, falling within the four walls of extant policy. 50 cities were digitally linked through VC. All the stake-holders of a particular grievance were invited on a single platform viz. the concerned Ministry/Department, the Pay & Accounts Officer of the concerned Department, the CPAO (Central Pension Accounts Officer, Ministry of Finance), the concerned Bank and the Pensioner or his/her representative to resolve the case across the table. This was one of the largest pensioner grievance resolution exercises ever undertaken in the Country. Till date seven Pension Adalats have been conducted by DoP&PW and out of a total of 22000 pension matters listed approximately 16000 grievances were resolved. In 7^th All India Pension Adalat which was held on first week of 5^th May, 2022 at Dr. Ambedkar International Centre, Janpath, New Delhi under auspices of Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (PP) by leveraging technology through Video Conferencing.
11. Release of Departmental publication of NPS Rules – On the Good Governance Day, 2022 (25^th December, 2022), MoS(PP) released a book on the Central Civil Services (Implementation of National Pension System) Rules, 2021 published by the Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare. These Rules were earlier notified on 30.03.2021. These Rules inter alia cover the matters relating to registration process and allotment of PRAN, contributions by the employee and the Government, compensation to be paid to the Government servant in case of delay in registration and credit of contributions to the NPS Account, option for benefits under the CCS(Pension) Rules or NPS Rules in the event of death or disability of Government servant during service, entitlements on superannuation, premature/ voluntary retirement, resignation from service, etc. and the procedure for processing of claims under NPS.
12. Monthly Report of DoPPW to Secretaries for CPENGRAMS/ Delayed PPOs –  The Department has started a practice of circulation of Monthly Report to all Secretaries of Ministries/Departments regarding pendency of Pension Grievances on CPENGRAMS portal and delay in issue of PPOs as per Bhavishya portal. Inter-Ministerial Review Meetings are also being held regularly to address excess pendency/delay.

PIB

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New Delhi, November 21st, 2021: Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, explained that a joint bank account is not required for Spouse Pension.

If the Head of Office is convinced that the retiring Government Servant would not be able to register a joint account with his or her spouse due to circumstances beyond his or her control, this condition may be eased, according to Dr Jitendra Singh.

All agency banks disbursing Central Government pensions have been told not to insist on creating a new account if the spouse (family pensioner) chooses to credit the family pension to an existing joint bank account.

The Minister, added that a joint bank account with spouse is however desirable and it is to be opened with their spouse in whose favor an authorization for family pension exists in the PPO.

The post Central govt pensioners latest news 2021 – Joint Bank Account Not Mandatory For Spouse Pension appeared first on CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES NEWS.

Payment of a Provisional Family Pension to the spouse of a pensioner who died as a result of the pandemic Covid-19 BPS sends a letter to the Hon’ble Minister.

BHARAT PENSIONERS SAMAJ
(All India Federation of Pensioners Associations)

No. BPS/SG/FP/Pensioner/2 1/5

Dated the 19th May 2021

DR. JITENDRA SINGH
HON’BLE MINISTER OF STATE
M/O PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES & PENSIONS

Reg: PAYMENT OF PROVISIONAL FAMILY PENSION TO THE SPOUSE OF PENSIONER DIED DURING PANDEMIC COVID -19.

Respected Sir,

Bharat Pensioners Samaj, while appreciating the various welfare measures undertaken by the Department of Pension and Pensioners Welfare under your leadership, seek your intervention to mitigate the suffering of spouses of pensioners who died during the Covid -19 period.

Sir, we with a heavy heart bring to your kind notice that, during this second wave, many of the Central Government pensioners have succumbed to Corona. Ina bid to curb spread of novel Corona Virus in the country, many of the State Governments have declared Lock-down for a period ranging from 15 days to a month or two. During this lockdown period, the concerned State Governments have issued guidelines to the offices and also Central Government offices, in their respective States, to function with bare minimum staff. As a result of this, spouses of pensioners, who died due to Covid or any other reasons, may not able to submit Form No. 14, duly filled and signed with all the relevant documents, in view of the lockdown declared by the Government and in the absence of functioning of government offices with full strength, there may be delay in their submission of Family Pension Application, which, in tum, may result in delay in getting their family pension sanctioned.

As you are aware, only Central Government employees/pensioners, who are residing in areas where CGHS Wellness Centres and CGHS empanelled Hospitals exist, can avail CGHS facilities in the empanelled hospitals . During this pandemic, other Central Government employees/pensioners are being denied admission in the CGHS empanelled hospitals when they are inflicted by Covid or for any other reasons when they desire to get admission using CGHS Card. In view of this, many Central Government employees/pensioners/family pensioners, during this pandemic, had to meet hospitalisation expenses from their own savings. Consequent to death of employees/pensioners, due to Covid or any other health reasons, their spouses or family members are not only put to financial hardship having spent huge sum towards hospitalisation expenses, but also due to the delay in getting their family pension consequent to the delay in submission of Form No. 14 (Family Pension Application) along with all the required documents. Having spent their savings towards hospitalisation, pensioners’ spouses may find difficulties in meeting their day to day expenses and medical needs, if there is delay in getting their family pension.

In this connection, we wish to bring to your kind attention that, in order to avoid any hardship to the family of the deceased Government servant, the Government has relaxed the provisions of Rule 80-A of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972, – vide its OM dated 29.7.2020(copy enclosed) to the extent that if a claim for family pension in Form 14 along with death certificate and bank account details of the claimant has been received and the Head of Office is satisfied about the bonafide of the claim, he shall sanction provisional family pension immediately in the case of death of a Government servant during service and that the amount of provisional family pension shall not exceed the maximum family pension as admissible under Rule 54 of CCS Pension Rules, 1972. As the concerned Pension Sanctioning Authority would have authorised for payment of family pension to his or her spouse in the PPO issued to him or her at the time of issuing Pension Payment Order to him/her, provisional family pension can be sanctioned pending receipt of Family Pension Application (Form No. 14), duly filled and signed with all the relevant documents for further processing and sanctioning of Family Pension.

Considering the hardship faced by the pensioner’s spouses, if the family pension is not sanctioned immediately, especially during this COVD 19 pandemic and also in normal course, we request your good self to consider sanctioning of provisional family pension to the spouses of pensioners, who have succumbed to Corona or due to any other diseases during this pandemic , just as has been done in the case of death of a Government servant during service in terms of Dop& PW OM dated 27.7.2020, on receipt of a request on a plain paper for sanction of provisional family pension along with Doctor’s Certificate relating to death with copies of Aadhar card/Pension Payment Order/first page of pass book, pending submission of Form No.14 along with other relevant documents.

Kindly cause to issue necessary orders, in this regard, at the earliest.

Thanking you,

With regards
Yours faithfully,

For Bharat Pensioners Samaj
S.C. MAHESHWARI
SECRETARY-GENERAL

The post PROVISIONAL FAMILY PENSION PAYMENT TO THE SPOUSE OF A PENSIONER WHO DIED DURING THE PANDEMIC COVID -19 appeared first on CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES NEWS.

No. 1/23/2020-P&PW (E)
Government of India
Ministry of Personnel, P.G. & Pensions
Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare

3rd Floor, Lok Nayak Bhawan,
Khan Market, New Delhi,
Dated-03.09.2020

To

Shri S.C Maheshwari
General Secretary.
Bharat Pensioners Samaj
2/13-A Backside Basement
Jangpura A, New Delhi -110014

Subject:- Enhancement of family pension

Sir,

I am directed to refer to your letter No BPS/SG/ FP/2020/01 dated 17.02.2020 on the above mentioned subject and to say that the matter regarding Enhancement of family pension was examined by 7th CPC and the following recommendation/ observation has been made by Commission:

“10.1.24 in representations to and in meetings with the Commission a number of entities have, while seeking a raise in pension from the existing level of 50 per cent of last pay drawn, questioned the basis for determination of pension st 50 per cent of last pay drawn. Similarly representations for increasing family pension from existing 30 per cent to 50 per cent of the last pay drawn have been received by the Commission.

10.1.25 The Commission sought the views of the government in this regard. The Department of Pension and Pensioners Welfare stated that the VI CPC had recommended calculation of pension @ 50 per cent of last pay of the average emoluments (for last 10 months) whichever is more beneficial. The Commission also recommended delinking of pension from qualifying service of 33 years. Effectively the dispensation on pension has already been liberalised by the VI CPC. Further the recommendations of this Commission in relation to pay of both the civilian and defence forces personnel will lead to a significant increase in the pay drawn and therefore in the ‘last pay drawn’ / reckonable emoluments.’ Therefore the Commission does not recommend any further increase in the rate of pension and family pension from the existing levels.”

In view of the recommendation/ observation of the 7th CPC being accepted by the Government there does not appear any further increase in the rate of pension and family pension from the existing levels.

Also check: PCDA – Submission of pension claim during lock-down in respect of Defence civilian

This issues with the approval of Competent Authority.

(Sanjoy Shankar)
Under Secretary to the Government of India

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