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Pension Requirements

Contents
  1. Pension Requirements
  2. Annual Life Certificate
  3. Life Time Arrears (LTA) of Pension

Annual Life Certificate

Necessity of Life Certificate

All pensioners are required to submit a Life Certificate annually to prove that they are still alive, to ensure that they keep drawing their pension. The Life Certificate ordinarily must be produced by the pensioner every November annually. Very senior pensioners, in the age group of 80 years and above, have been permitted to submit Annual Life commencing 01st October instead of 1st November onwards, every year vide DoPPW OM No. 1/20/2018-P&PW(E), dated 18.07.2019.

Life Certificate through SPARSH

Consequent to the introduction of the SPARSH system for pension payment to defence veterans, the process for submitting the Life Certificate can be done digitally (Digital Life Certificate or DLC); or manually (Manual Life Certificate of MLC), through the SPARSH portal. The options to submit the Life Certificate (both manual and online) may be seen in this Aide Memoire published by NAVPEN and a playlist of YouTube video tutorials on the same may be viewed through this link.

Manual Life Certificate

The SPARSH portal provides an option to submit a Manual Life Certificate (MLC). For this, a blank pdf form needs to be downloaded, printed, filled up and then signed by an appropriate authority from the list below, after which the completed and signed form is scanned and uploaded, again through the SPARSH portal.

1. Any person exercising the power of a Magistrate under the Criminal Procedure Code, 1898 (5 of 1898).
2. A Registrar or Sub-Registrar under the Registration Act, 1908 (16 of 1908).
3. Any pensioned Officer who before retirement exercised the powers of a Magistrate.
4. Any Gazetted Officer of Government.
5. A Munsif.
6. A Post Master.
7. A Departmental Sub Post Master.
8. An Inspector of Post Offices.
9. A Class I Officer of the Reserve Bank of India.
10. An Officer of the State Bank of India.
11. An Officer of a subsidiary Bank of the State Bank of India.
12. Head of a Village Panchayat, Gram Panchayat or Gaon Panchayat.
13. Head of an Executive Committee of a village.
14. An officer of a bank included in the second Schedule to the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 (2 of 1934) in respect of pensioner drawing his/her pension through that Bank.
15. A Police Officer not below the rank of Sub-Inspector-in-Charge of a Police Station.
16. A member of Lok Sabha/Rajya Sabha/Vidhan Sabha/Vidhan Parishad or a Corporator of Municipal Corporation or a Councilor of a Municipality.
17. In the case of pensioners reemployed a life certificate furnished by the pensioner signed by the Head of the office, where he is re-employed.
18. A District Sainik Welfare officer- (DSWO).

Digital Life Certificate (Jeevan Pramaan)

The Government has launched both a website as well as an app called Jeevan Pramaan, for the pensioner to submit a Digital Life Certificate online, without the physical necessity to make out and get the MLC signed. Jeevan Pramaan uses the Aadhaar platform for biometric authentication of the pensioner. A successful authentication generates the Digital Life Certificate which gets stored in the Life Certificate Repository. The Pension Disbursing Agencies can then access the certificate online. This can be done at home using either an STQC-certified fingerprint scanner/iris reader (like Mantra MFS 100/110) connected to the PC; or an Android smartphone running Android version 7.0 or above, 4+ GB of RAM, 64GB storage (minimum 500 MB free space), an Aadhaar number registered with Pension Disbursing Authority and a camera with a resolution of 5 MP or more to validate his / her biometrics with the Aadhar records. The Android app may be downloaded here. On the mobile, the JeevanPramaan also requires another app Aadhar FaceRD to be installed. Recently, the JeevanPramaan app for iPhone has also been made available and can be downloaded from the Appstore.

While undertaking DLC online, the following need to be borne in mind while entering details:-

  • The Sanctioning Authority must be entered as ‘Defence PCDA(P), Allahabad.’
  • Both the Disbursing Agency as well as the Agency must be entered as ‘SPARSH: PCDA(P), Allahabad.’
  • The number sent by PCDA(P) through SMS as Pension ID (12-Figure Number) has to be filled as SPARSH PPO.

Click on this link to view a useful pictorial guide on completing the Life Certificate process on an Android mobile using JeevanPramaan (courtesy Gp Capt K Balasubramian (Retd)).

Alternative Methods

State Bank of India (SBI) has a facility where certificates can be submitted via video conferencing. Here’s how you can use this service:-

  • Visit www.pensionseva.sbi
  • Select ‘Video LC’ to start the video life certificate submission process
  • Enter SBI pension account number, Captcha.
  • On the new page, click on the ‘Start Journey’ option and click on ‘I Am Ready’ option
  • Keep your PAN with you at this time

You may have to wait for a few minutes for the SBI official to connect with you on the video call. Once you are connected, you need to submit the 4-digit verification number displayed on the screen (below the video) to the SBI official who will, then. capture your photo with your PAN card and complete the process of life certificate submission. After 48 hrs you will get an SMS from SBI, “Dear Customer, Life Certificate submitted by you through Video LC is successfully accepted. Thank You-SBI”

VLC Procedure by SBI
VLC by SBI – Video

The Department of Posts has launched an initiative of the Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare: “Doorstep Service for submission of Digital Life Certificate through Postman” in November 2020. In order to make this facility available across the country, DoPPW roped in the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) to utilize its huge network of Postmen and Gramin Dak Sevaks in providing doorstep facilities to pensioners for the submission of life certificates digitally. IPPB is utilizing its national network of more than 1,36,000 access points in Post Offices and more than 1,89,000 Postmen &Gramin Dak Sevaks with smartphones and biometric devices to provide Doorstep Banking Services. The process of submitting the Digital Life Certificate through Postman may be seen by clicking this link.

Life Time Arrears (LTA) of Pension

Life Time Arrears (LTA) is the Pension for the period it was not drawn during the lifetime of a pensioner. According to Arrears of Pension (Nomination) Rules, 1983, pensioners are required to nominate another person, during his/her lifetime to receive the arrears of pension, due to the pensioner on his/her death. This is paid to the nominee, and if there is no nominee, lifetime arrears can be claimed by the legal heirs and settled. However, time-barred claims will be settled by the sanction of the concerned Pension Sanctioning Authority.

Many veterans may not have made or kept a copy of the Life Time Arrears nomination made at the time of retirement. Many banks also do not have the nomination form. Additionally, circumstances may have changed for some pensioners’ households from retirement to the present day.

It is, therefore, essential that besides making a nomination in their bank account, all veterans – including family pensioners – should ensure that they resubmit their LTA form which can be downloaded here. Four copies of the form need to be completed and signed by the bank. Thereafter, one copy of the form is to be handed over to the bank and a receipt obtained from it on a second copy. The two other copies are to be forwarded to your record office, which for naval veterans is “The Logistics Officer-in-Charge, Naval Pension Office, c/o INS Tanaji, Sion – Trombay Road, Mankhurd, Mumbai 400088.”

In case the LTA form is not held, banks have been instructed as follows vide PCDA Circular 476:-

Family Pension may be granted after obtaining a certificate from the widow/ claimant in the form of Affidavit / Indemnity Bond, stating that “Her Husband / Deceased was a pensioner at the time of his /her death. He/She has neither been convicted/sentenced/remarried nor changed his/her nationality before death. If at a later stage he/she is found ineligible for grant of Family Pension, he/she will be liable to refund the entire amount with interest paid to his/her as Family Pension.” This certificate/affidavit should be witnessed by two Defence Pensioners.