The Department of Pension & Pensioners' Welfare (DoPPW) initiated new guidelines wherein, in all cases of government employees with more than 18 years of service, an order was issued mandating regular verification of the qualifying service records of retiring employees before reaching retirement. The overall objective of this is to ensure that the retirement records of employees are accurate and complete at the time of superannuation so that the processing of pension does not get delayed.

The guidelines have their roots in a ministry wing called the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. According to these guidelines, it is the mandate that the verification exercise be conducted for such employees who have completed 18 years of service and are within five years of their date of retirement. The initiative was based on a Memorandum of the Office and was implemented under the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 2021, according to which pre-retirement verification of the service period and eligibility for retirement benefits of every employee needs to be conducted.

New Centralised Pension Payments System: Pilot Run Successful, Says Centre

Its objective is to make retiring simply by indicating any such disparity or absence of such document with the prime advantage well before retirement. The Head of Office, after due consultation with the accounts officer, scrutinizes the service record of every employee by extant rules. In this case, the certificate of qualifying service is issued to the individual in Form No 4, duly informing him of the years assessed as service years.

Additionally, under this new rule, each ministry or department shall prepare and submit annually to the Secretary of the Administrative Ministry or Department by January 31st of every year an annual report on qualifying service verifications. This, therefore, will lead to accountability between the government entities and thereby ensure the issuance of certificates in good time to employees who have qualified.

It brings forth the fact that the guidelines apply to all employees covered under the traditional pension scheme as well as the National Pension System, subsequently according to Rule 21 of the CCS (Payment of Gratuity under NPS) Rules, 2021. Even though guidelines were issued in the past, some of the employees did not get their service verification certificates which resulted in delays and confusion at the time of retirement. For this purpose, the ministries and departments have been instructed strictly to comply with the set guidelines so that the eligible employees have verification certificates promptly.

DoPPW's proactive measures will thereby eliminate bottlenecks in the pension process by enabling government employees to retire smoothly without any problems with their entitlements.