EPFO withholds pension of 11,935 beneficiaries

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Jhajjar, March 16

The Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has withheld monthly pension of 11,935 beneficiaries of eight districts, including Jhajjar, Rohtak, Bhiwani, Charkhi Dadri, Hisar, Sirsa, Fatehabad and Jind due to non-submission of the digital life certificate (DLC).

Sources say all the pensioners were asked to submit the DLC before December 31 last year to continue receiving pension benefit under the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS), 1995. 12,773 out of the total 28,000 employees fulfilled the mandatory condition within the deadline. The number shot up to 16,065 in February, but there are still 11,935 pensioners who are yet to submit their DLC.

“The EPFO provides monthly pension under superannuation, disablement, orphan, children, death-in-service and nominee/parent pensioner categories. The beneficiaries can obtain the DLC either from their bank and the common service centre (CSC) or from the EPFO office by linking their Aadhar card with the Pensioner Payment Order (PPO) through the Jeewan Parman web portal and Umang application software. Thumb and eye impression of the pensioner is also verified at that time,” said Subrata Bhaumik, Assistant Commissioner (PF) at the regional office in Rohtak.

He said the DLC was launched in 2016 to ensure transparency in the system. Earlier, the pensioners had to fill a form in the bank for getting life certificate every year. The bank then sent the form to the EPFO office to ensure continuation of the pension benefit.

“There may be several cases of deaths among the 11,935 pending cases as kin of the deceased beneficiaries do not inform the bank and the EPFO office on time,” said Bhaumik, adding that the pensions would be released next month after the submission of the DLC.

Pensioners fail to submit life certificate

• All pensioners were asked to submit the digital life certificate (DLC) before December 31 last year to continue receiving pension benefit under the EPS, 1995. 
• Of the 28,000 employees, 12,773 fulfilled the mandatory condition within the deadline. 
• The number shot up to 16,065 in February, but there are still 11,935 pensioners who are yet to submit their DLC.