Ensure faster disbursement of pension to kin of Covid victims: Govt

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The Central government has asked all its departments to speed up the process of disbursing family pension and death gratuity to the nominees and kin of government employees who have died due to Covid-19.

The government has also asked departments to appoint nodal officers who would coordinate with the family members of a deceased government employee to assist in paperwork.

“As you are aware, quite a few government employees and officers have lost their lives in the recent surge of Covid-19 cases. In many cases, the deceased employees and officers were the sole breadwinners of the family,” he said. The untimely death of employees and officers has left their families devastated and in urgent need of funds in the midst of the pandemic, Indevar Pandey,” the Department of pension and pensioners’ welfare secretary said.

“It is, therefore, incumbent on the government to ensure that family pension and other entitlements in respect of deceased employees are released to their families expeditiously,” he added in a letter issued to secretaries of all central government ministries and departments.

The Centre has asked all departments to strictly comply with the rules and instructions and to ensure that payment of provisional family pension is commenced by the head of the office immediately on receipt of the claim (with death certificate) from the eligible family member and payment of provisional death gratuity is made to the nominees/family members immediately after forwarding the case to the Pay and Accounts Office.

“It may be ensured that the PPO for family pension is issued and disbursement of regular family pension is commenced by the bank not later than one month of the receipt of the claim for family pension,” the statement added.

Upon the death of a government employee during service, in all cases, family pension is payable at the rate of 50% of the last pay for a period of the first 10 years and at the rate of 30% of the last pay thereafter, the letter stated.