Armed Forces Personnel to receive their April pension today; Here is what MoD says

All pensioners must complete annual identification in order to continue receipt of monthly pension, says the government.

In an effort to address concerns raised in sections of the media related to the non-disbursement of pension to defence pensioners for the month of April 2022, on Wednesday (May 4, 2022), the Ministry of Defence issued clarification regarding the same.

What does the Ministry of Defence say?

In November, all pensioners are expected to complete annual identification, and this will help in continuing the receipt of monthly pension, by all banks which have been identified as Pension Disbursing Agencies

In November 2021, the government had decided to extend the annual identification window up to March 31, 2022. This decision was taken due to the global pandemic of COVID-19.

According to MoD, SPARSH has disbursed monthly pension to over five lakh pensioners of the Indian Armed forces and this includes 4.47 lakh pensioners who migrated from legacy system to SPARSH (this mean those who retired post 01.01.2016 retirees) upto end of March this year.

It further states while pension for the month of April was being processed this year, annual identification of 3.3 lakh pensioners was not updated.  Thereafter, a list was shared with all Pension Disbursing Banks to share updated identification data. Following this, by April 25, identification status of more than 2.65 lakh pensioners was updated on SPARSH, leading to the processing of pension for all pensioners.

The MoD has said that banks (the previous Pension Disbursing Agency) were not able to confirm identification for 58,275 pensioners. And by the time of monthly closing, their identification was not received directly on SPARSH.

And it is because of this reason these pensioners could not get April pension by month end.

Action Plan

Now,  by May 25, 2022, a decision has been taken to give 58,275 pensioners a one-time special waiver to get their identification done.

By the end of day (May 4), the pension for the month of April has been processed and will be credited. And all the pensioners who were not able to get their identification done are being informed through SMS and email, said the MoD in its statement.

Digitisation and modernisation of legacy systems

In an effort to bring efficiency and transformation in different procedures and processes, the MoD, including the Defence Accounts Department, is undergoing a major transformation. And, in line with the government’s vision of Digital India, the System for Pension Administration (Raksha) (SPARSH) under MoD was set up to provide a comprehensive solution to the administration of pension to the defence pensioners.