11 Mar, 2021 01:26 PM

DoPT order on instructions for timely payment of retirement benefits

No. 3(6)/2021-P&PW(H)-7083
Government of India
Ministry of Personnel & Public Grievance
Department of Pension and pensioners’ Welfare

8th Floor, Janpath Bhavan,
Janpath, New Delhi,

Dated: 9th March, 2021

OFFICE MEMORANDUM

Subject:-Timely payment of retirement benefits to the retiring employees

The undersigned is directed to say that timelines have been prescribed under the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972 for each activity involved in the processing of a pension case and for payment of pension and gratuity to a retiring Government servant. As per this timeline, the process of verification of service and other preparatory work should be undertaken one year before a Government servant is due to retire on superannuation, the Government servant should submit the forms six months before retirement, the Head of Office should send the pension case to the PAO four months before retirement and the PAO should issue PPO and send it to CPAO one month before retirement. The CPAO is required to issue the Special Seal Authority within 21 days, thereafter.

Instructions have been issued vide this Department’s OM No 1/27/2011- P &PW (E) dated 01.08.2017 for handing over the copy of pensioner PPO to him/her at the time of retirement along with other retirement dues. The Rules also provide for sanction of provisional pension in cases where a Government servant is likely to retire before finalization of his pension and gratuity.
“BHAVISHYA’, the online Pension Sanction & Payment Tracking System, facilitates online tracking of pension sanction and payment process by the individual as well as the administrative authorities and keeps the retiring employees informed of the progress of pension sanction process through SMS/E-Mail. The system is, therefore, very useful for ensuring timely payment of pensionary benefits to the retiring Government servant.

In spite of the timelines prescribed in the rules/instructions and simplification/streamlining of the procedures through BHAVISHYA, issue of the PPO and payment of retirement benefits continue to be delayed in a large number of cases. A significant percentage of the grievances registered on the CPENGRAMS relate to non-payment of retirement dues for several months after retirement. Delay in settlement of retirement dues also leads to avoidable litigation. In a number of cases, the courts have directed payment of interest for the delayed period to the affected pensioners, besides making adverse comments on the functioning of the administration.
In order to ensure timely payment of retirement dues in all cases, it has been decided that the progress of the pension cases should be regularly monitored by the Heads of the organizations and the Heads of Departments. An effective monitoring mechanism is required to be established in every office/Department to review the progress of processing of the pension cases. The information available from the BHAVISHYA software may be utilized for this purpose.

Farewell programs are often organized in the offices on the occasion of retirement of employees. This is one of the most appropriate occasions that can be utilized to review the progress of the pension cases and to sensitize the concerned staff about the importance of timely payment of retirement dues. Accordingly, in every farewell function, Heads of organizations/Departments/offices may review the progress of pension cases of all the employees of that organization/Department/office, who are due for retirement in the next six months. Wherever the processing of any pension case is found to be behind schedule, proactive action must be taken to ensure that all retirement dues are paid on time to the retiring Government servant.
A half-yearly statement may be submitted by each Department/ organization/ office to the Secretary of the administrative Ministry/Department indicating the particulars of the Government servants in whose case issue of PPO was delayed by more than two months after retirement on superannuation. The statement may also contain the reasons for the delay in issuing the PPO and remedial action taken to avoid such delays in future.

All the Ministries/Departments are requested to bring the above instructions to the notice of the offices/field organizations under their administrative control for strict compliance.