EPS Pensioners protesting in Delhi on 27 February for the minimum monthly pension

EPS Pensioners protesting in Delhi on 27 February for the minimum monthly pension

 All-India EPS-95 Pensioners Sangharsh Samiti will take out a march from the Jantar Mantar to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in Delhi on February 27 for the minimum monthly pension of Rs 7500 under the scheme.

EPS-95 pensioners from all over the country have been agitating on the issue of raising their pension since the last three years, but the Centre has done nothing except giving hollow assurances, a statement said Friday.

"As per a Supreme Court order, EPS pensioners should be given a higher pension. At present they are getting the pension in range of Rs 200 to Rs 2500 per month, which is meagre in view of rising inflation," the Sangharsh Samiti's Bhopal coordinator R A Dharkar stated.
He said the pension amount should be raised to minimum Rs 7500 per month apart from the DA (Dearness Allowance).

"A rally will be taken out on February 27 from Jantar Mantar to the office of the Prime Minister for our demands," the release stated.

The Samiti also seeks better medical facilities to the EPS-95 pensioners and their spouses. It also wanted that those retired employees who are not part of the scheme be brought under its ambit.
Dharkar claimed the Central government had only given hollow assurances to pensioners.

EPS or Employee Pension Scheme, which was brought into force in the year of 1995, is a guaranteed pension plan supported by the government, wherein the stipulated amount will be remitted to the employee upon retirement, without any changes to the same.

PTI

EPFO disbursed Rs. 47,630 crore as member benefits and Rs. 8,200 crore as monthly pensions in 2015-16

EPFO disbursed Rs. 47,630 crore as member benefits and Rs. 8,200 crore as monthly pensions in 2015-16

In 2015-16, EPFO disbursed approximately Rs. 47,630 crore as member benefits and Rs. 8,200 crore as monthly pensions.

To monitor the status of enrolment of contractual employees especially in municipalities, EPFO has taken steps towards putting in place a system where principal employers including government bodies who enroll workers directly or through contractors can view details of contractors including the amount paid towards PF dues on real time basis. Now, EPFO will be in a position to compare the PF dues reimbursed to contractors and the PF dues actually remitted by contractors. Mismatch in the amounts would indicate possible specific evasion that can be followed up towards seeking compliance. A facility already exists in public domain wherein all principal employers can check the amounts remitted by contactors’ establishments. Any person through this report can also check if her / his name appears in the list of employees submitted by contractor to EPFO on a monthly basis. EPFO is also in the process of digitizing compliance reporting system. It is expected that reporting in Compliance area shall be online and real time by the second quarter of this financial year.

The process of seeding EPS pensioners’ data with Aadhaar is underway in EPFO. While seeding the data, it has been noticed that in certain cases there is data mismatch between EPF data and Aadhaar data in respect of date of birth and name of pensioner. To rectify it, pensioners / members are being advised to correct either their details provided to EPFO offices or to correct the details given in Aadhaar, whichever is correct.
It is also seen that a number of online transfer applications by members are pending with the employers for attestation and verification of member details by the employers Field offices of EPFO have been directed to take up the matter with employers to clear this on priority.

On the occasion of International Labour Day, EPFO launched a special mission consolidation drive “One –Employee-One – EPF Account”. The drive is to consolidate multiple accounts of members so that they are able to access variety of IT enabled services such as e-mail / SMS alerts, access to e-passbook at their leisure. Shri Bandaru Dattatreya, Union Minister of State for Labour & Employment (Independent Charge) while presiding over the function marking International Labour Day stated that this drive would result in EPF members having lifelong one EPF account and multiple conveniences. The Universal Account Number (UAN) that is Aadhaar seeded will consolidate multiple past service accounts, across various spells of employment of an EPF member.

The month of April also saw withdrawal of notification dated 10th February 2016 on amendment in Paragraph 68 NN, 68-O and 69 and insertion of new Para 68 –NNNN in the EPF Scheme, 1952. The interest rate of 8.8% to be credited to members’ accounts for the financial year 2015-16 was also finalized by the Government as recommended by the Central Board of Trustees, EPF.

PIB

EPS pensioners assured of minimum pension of Rs. 1000 per month

EPS pensioners assured of minimum pension of Rs. 1000 per month

Press Information Bureau,
Government of India
Ministry of Labour & Employment

12-May, 2015

EPS pensioners assured of minimum pension of Rs. 1000 per month

EPFO settles 11.77 lakh claims in April 2015: 77% of EPF claims settled within 10 days.

The Employees Provident Fund Organisation(EPFO) has settled 11.77 lakh claims were settled in the month of April itself. This fact emerged while reviewing the performance of EPFO in the first month of the new financial year 2015-16. According to Shri K.K. Jalan, CPFC showing an improvement in the time taken for settlement, 48% of the claims were settled within 03 days and 77% were settled within 10 days. More than 15 crore annual accounts were updated in the first two working days of the financial year which is a historical first and this was made possible by the adoption of new updated software by the organization.

A decision was also taken regarding continuation of minimum pension of Rs 1000 to the pensioners of EPS, 1995 on a perpetual basis. This move is expected to benefit more than 19 lakh pensioners who would otherwise draw less than Rs. 1000 as pension under EPS, 1995.

Grievance redressal continued to be given top most priority. More than 14,000 grievances were settled in the month of April leaving a balance of 3,354 grievances pending. Of these more than three-fourths were pending for less than 15 days. As grievance monitoring is being done at the highest level in the government under PRAGATI programme, comprehensive guidelines were also issued to further minimize the number of pending grievances.

A conference of the ten Zonal Addl. CPFCs also took place in last month. Several important decisions directly affecting the working of the organization were taken. Top priority is to be accorded to activation of UAN and also to activate e-life certificate, “Jeevan Praman Patra” for EPS pensioners.Use of e-governance tools has to be adopted in all functional areas including compliance management. This would help the organization in better monitoring and also foster a conducive compliance environment It was also decided to initiate efforts for making the members’ passbook on the portal, available in vernacular languages also, for the benefit and convenience of the PF subscribers.

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PIB