Union minister Jitendra Singh on Wednesday stated that the federal government has actually decided to extend the payment of provisional pension as much as a period of one year from the date of retirement of a worker in view of the COVID-19 circumstance.

At a meeting held online with senior officers of the Department of Pension and Pensioners' Well-being (DoPPW) and the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), he stated that provisional family pension was likewise liberalised, according to a declaration issued by the Worker Ministry.Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel, said that directions were issued that household pension might be approved instantly on receipt of a claim for household pension and death certificate from the eligible relative without waiting on forwarding of the family pension case to Pay and Accounts Office.

Singh today stated that the government has decided to extend the payment of provisionary pension up to a period of one year from the date of retirement in view of the pandemic scenario, the statement saidIn some cases, government servants have actually died after retirement without sending the pension documents, it said.In order to avoid challenges to the households of such government servants, guidelines have been offered for concern of Pension Payment Order for release of arrears of pension (from the date of retirement till the date of death of retired federal government servant) in all such cases and for grant of family pension to the family member from the date of death, the statement said.He said that orders have likewise been provided to extend the benefit of lump sum payment to National Pension Plan (NPS) employees likewise, if they suffer a disability in the performance of duty and are maintained in federal government service regardless of such disablement.According to guidelines, if a government servant suffers an impairment due to an injury or disease in the efficiency of responsibility and is kept in government service regardless of such disablement, a swelling amount compensation is paid to the individual in lieu of the special needs component of the impairment pension.Moreover, to guarantee timely credit of pension in cases where PPO (Pension Payment Order) has been issued however not sent out to the Central Pension Accounting Workplace (CPAO) or banks due to lockdown, the matter was taken up with the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) to provide necessary directive to CPAO and the Central Pension Processing Centre (CPPC) of banks to utilize electronic modes throughout the extraordinary situation of the COVID-19 pandemic till normalcy returns, it said.The DoPPW has actually recommended all the Pension Paying out Banks to embrace the video-based customer recognition process (V-CIP) as an additional center for getting a life certificate from pensioners, within the permissible Reserve Bank of India (RBI) standards.

UCO Bank has become a pioneer in this area, the statement stated.