KOLKATA: Next time you go to your bank to draw monthly pension, make sure you get your dues correctly. The Sixth Central Pay Commission has recently raised pension by 30-40%, but the irony is a significant chunk of the country’s 32 lakh civil pensioners are subjected to various levels of miscalculation in pension payment order (PPO).
Some haven’t received revised pensions for decades. And some have been victims of gross underpayment. Some have never seen revisions in their dearness relief while non-payment of medical allowance is the pattern for many.
There is another set of people, who have been running from pillar to post for years to activate either their pension accounts or family pension payments. The most common issue here, according to the authorities, is non-payment of pension on due date.
The anomalies are typically high in case of family pensions.
ET has collated innumerable instances of the agony that pensioners face. Take the case of Priyanka Shenoy, daughter of late Kamala Shenoy, a central government official. Her father has passed away years ago. Priyanka is maiden and eligible to receive family pension of nearly Rs 5,000 per month with effect from August 2006. But all her efforts have so far been in vain.
Significantly, the State Bank of India (SBI), which handles a huge number of pension accounts, has the largest cases of irregularities.
“There had been a flaw in the system. At times, our branches faced difficulty in pension calculation and disbursement due to the huge number of accounts, given the shortage of employees. But now we have completely centralised the back office job to improve on the system,” a senior SBI executive told ET.
Other public sector banks too face the same difficulty. Backed by core banking solution, every PSB is now on centralising its pension processing operations.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com
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