Pensioners need not go to banks to give proof of life: Government

New Delhi: Pensioners need not visit banks to give proof of their life for continuation of pension, the Centre informed the Rajya Sabha today.

Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh

There is no procedural complication in the disbursement of pension or family pension of a central government pensioner or family pensioners. It is credited regularly to their pension account and it does not require the pensioners' physical presence in the pension disbursing bank, Minister of State for Personnel, Public grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh said in a written reply.

"Further, a pensioner or family pensioner need not visit the bank even for submitting life certificate, which can either be submitted online through Aadhaar-based biometric authentication or be signed by a person designated by the government for this purpose," he said.

In case a pensioner sends intimation about his serious illness or incapacitation supported by a medical certificate, a nominee of the paying branch of the bank visits the pensioner at home or hospital for recording his life certificate, Singh said.

The are about 58 lakh central government pensioners.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in November 2014, launched 'Jeevan Pramaan' --an Aadhaar-based digital life certificate for pensioners.

The certification was launched to do away with the requirement of a pensioner having to submit a physical life certificate each year, in order to ensure continuity of his or her pension.

PTI

Special Aadhaar Enrolment drive for Pensioners, from May 30 to June 10, 2016

Pensioners will also get opportunity to seed data for digital life certificate The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has launched a special enrolment drive for pensioners who are yet to enroll for Aadhaar. The drive is being conducted to enable Pensioners avail the convenience of Jeevan Pramaan, an initiative of Department of Pensions and Pensioners’ Welfare, Government of India. Every year, pensioners need to provide a life certificate to an authorized pension disbursing agency such as a Bank, Post office etc., for receipt of pension. To get a life certificate the pensioner is required to either personally present oneself before the Pension Disbursing Agency or have the Life Certificate issued by the department/authority where they served earlier and have it delivered to the disbursing agency. This entails considerable hardship to the senior Citizens. Jeevan Pramaan, a digital life certificate which utilises the Aadhaar identity platform, addresses this very problem by digitizing the whole process of securing a life certificate. A pensioner just needs to biometrically authenticate at the nearest centre. After successful authentication, the digital life certificate is stored in a Life Certificate Repository, which can be accessed by the Pension Disbursing Authority. To facilitate pensioners to avail the facility of Jeevan Pramaan, which is based on Aadhaar Identity platform, UIDAI and Department of Pensions and Pensioners’ Welfare have taken initiative to carry out special enrolment drive for Pensioners through banks which are Registrars for enrolment for Aadhaar as well as Pension Disbursing Authorities. The banks which include names like State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Allahabad Bank, Canara Bank, have also been asked to conduct special Aadhaar seeding camps where Pensioners will be requested to provide their Aadhaar details to their respective banks from which they draw pension so that they can get a digital life certificate – Jeevan Pramaan. The enrolment drive and the Aadhaar seeding camp is being run from May 30 to June 10, 2016. “We hold special enrolment drives to help people who are yet to enrol for Aadhaar. This particular exercise has been initiated to make sure pensioners get an Aadhaar number if they still don’t have one and seed the Aadhaar details of pensioners so that they can get a Jeevan Pramaan,” said Director General & Mission Director of UIDAI, Dr. Ajay Bhushan Pandey. So far over 15.41 Lakh pensioners have already registered for the Aadhaar-enabled Jeevan Pramaan service. PIB