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Defence ministry extends deadline for veterans to claim pension

By, New Delhi
May 26, 2022 12:49 AM IST

Pensions for the month of May will not be withheld as a special case so that the veterans are not inconvenienced, and the former servicemen have been asked to complete the paperwork by June 25, the officials said.

The defence ministry on Wednesday extended by one month the deadline for former servicemen to claim pension by submitting mandatory life certificates for the same to be processed under a new online disbursing system called System for Pension Administration (Raksha) or Sparsh, officials familiar with the development said.

Annual identification is mandatory for continued and timely credit of pension.
Annual identification is mandatory for continued and timely credit of pension.

Pensions for the month of May will not be withheld as a special case so that the veterans are not inconvenienced, and the former servicemen have been asked to complete the paperwork by June 25, the officials said.

Annual identification is mandatory for continued and timely credit of pension.

On May 25, HT had reported that the government was set to extend the deadline for veterans to complete their annual identification as more than 36,000 people had not submitted their life certificates as of May 24.

Sparsh involves crediting pensions directly into the accounts of former servicemen without relying on any external intermediary (banks). India has more than 3.3 million defence pensioners, of whom about 500,000 have been moved to the new system. The migration is likely to be complete by the end of the year.

Earlier, the defence ministry had set May 25 as the deadline for veterans to complete the process to ensure smooth processing of their pension by the Allahabad-based Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Pensions).

“The initial waiver was given till May 25 and it has now been extended to June 25 to ensure that no pensioner is deprived of their rightful pension,” said one of the officials cited above.

“Upon verification of data received as of May 25, it has been noticed that 34,636 pensioners who have been migrated to Sparsh have not completed their annual identification – neither online nor through their respective banks,” the official said.

Earlier this month, as many as 58,275 former servicemen, who were facing financial hardships as they had not received their pension for April, got their pension after the defence ministry swiftly intervened in the matter and granted them a “one-time special waiver” to complete by May 25 their documentation to draw pension, a key requirement that several veterans were then in the dark about.

This came after HT reported that veterans, including several three-star officers, had not received their April pension, and the government’s pension disbursing authority had not told them why.

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