Announcing new regulations

Applicants have to submit annual life certificates in October instead of November for further continuation of pension

Earlier, as a measure to enable an additional and exclusive window to senior pensioners, the department allowed the pensioners in the age group of 80 years and above to submit annual life certificate from October 1st onwards, instead of November 1st onwards, every year.

The different modes available to a pensioner for submission of annual life certificate are,

• Life certificates can be recorded by pension disbursing banks if the pensioner physically appears before the banks.
• The pensioner does not need to appear if the life certificate form of the pensioner is signed by any designated official. As per the scheme booklet issued by the Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO), a pensioner who produces a life certificate in the prescribed form signed by persons specified is exempted from personal appearance.
• Pensioners can submit a life certificate online from home through Jeevan Pramaan portal.  UIDAI has provided the details of all biometric devices which are permissible for capturing biometrics of a person. Pensioners may visit the site www.uidai.gov.in to get information.
• India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) of the Department of Posts along with the MeitY has successfully launched an initiative for the Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare. The initiative focuses on the doorstep service for submission of digital life certificate through postman. To make this facility available across the country, DoPPW roped in the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) to utilise its huge network of postmen and gramin dak sevaks in providing doorstep facilities to pensioners for submission of life certificates digitally with smartphones and biometric devices. For leveraging this facility online, a pensioner has to download Postinfo application from the Google Playstore.
• DoPPW was also instrumental in roping in an alliance comprising 12 public sector banks, which do doorstep banking for its customers in 100 major cities of the country under the ease of banking reforms. PSB Alliance has introduced the service for the collection of life certificates under the umbrella of doorstep banking. DSB agent shall visit the doorstep of pensioner to render the service.

Compliance with Covid protocols while obtaining life certificates from pensioners

• Due to the Covid pandemic, all pension disbursing banks are advised to ensure proper social distancing measures, as well as compliance of Covid appropriate behaviour, while obtaining life certificates from pensioners/family pensioners who physically visit the branches. Officials deployed for this task should be fully vaccinated and should take the highest possible care while attending to pensioners. Banks are also requested to devise their innovative mechanisms to avoid the rush at the branches during the submission of life certificates.

Doorstep banking service, which also includes the collection of digital life certificate from the pensioners, caters to a very vulnerable group. It may be ensured that all representatives of the banks who visit the homes of the pensioners to obtain life certificates should be fully vaccinated. They should be equipped with a proper mask and sanitiser and should be advised to follow the highest possible care while obtaining the life certificate through bio-metric devices. These biometric devices shall be sanitised by the representative before and after each use. These instructions shall also apply to postmen and gramin dak sevaks deployed for the doorstep service for submission of life certificate by India Post Payments Bank (IPPB).

• As senior pensioners (aged 80 years and above) are scheduled to submit life certificate from October 1st onwards, all pension disbursing banks are also requested to enable video-based customer identification process (V-CIP) methodology, within the permissible RBI guidelines, before October 2021. In the current pandemic, this option will ensure adequate safety and ease of living for senior pensioners.