Facilitating Yearly Verification

Kamal Baruah

(The writer can be reached at kamalbaruah@yahoo.com)

When November falls, every Central Government, State, PSU or other pensioner has to submit the Annual Life Certificate during that month for further continuation of pension. Senior citizens find it hard to be physically present owing to old age and infirmity or medical ailment. Because of the ongoing pandemic, the government has taken steps to make this process at ease while many pensioners and their caregivers are uninformed of it. "For retirees, a Life Certificate serves as verification as proof of existence. It has been observed that a large number of pensioners physically visit Banks, Post Offices, EPFOsand Treasuries for this purpose. To enable an additional exclusive window to very senior pensioners, government allow pensioners in the age group of 80 years and above to submit a Life Certificate from 1st October onwards instead of 1st November. A Life Certificate can be submitted manually or digitally as per the convenience of the pensioner. The five different modes available to a pensioner for submission of Life Certificate are hereby summarised for pensioners' awareness.

(1) Life Certificate can be recorded by Pension Disbursing Agency (PDAs) i.e. Bank if the pensioner physically appears before the PDA.

(2) A pensioner who produces a Life Certificate in the prescribed form signed by any 'designated officials exempted from personal appearance. "A Magistrate, Registrar, Sub Registrar, Gazetted Officer, Police Officer i/c Police Station, Postmaster, Officer of RBI / SBI or its subsidiary, Justice of Peace, BDO, Munsif, Tehsildar, Head of Panchayat, Executive member of a village, MP, MLA and Treasury Officer are those list of persons specified for signing the Life Certificate as per CPAO para 14.3 of scheme booklet by Central Pension Accounting Office.

(3) Pensioners can submit DigitalLife Certificate from home through Jeevan Pramaan Portal. UIDAI has provided details of all permissible devices for capturing biometrics. Also they can submit digitally at a nearby citizen service centre of bank / post office. This year, Assam government has also taken initiative to facilitate pensioners to use the Aadhaar enable Biometric authentication mechanism to generate Digital Life Certificate.

(4) India Post Payments Banks (IPPB) has successfully launched a doorstep service across the country for submission of Digital Life Certificate through Postman and GraminDakSevaks with smartphones and biometric devices. For leveraging this facility through Mobile, a pensioner has to download the 'Post info App' from Google Play Store.

(5) Twelve public sector bank alliances have introduced the Doorstep Banking service under the Ease of banking reforms. The agent shall visit the doorstep of the customer to render the service such as the collection of Life Certificate and others. Service can be booked through any of the 3 channels i.e. Mobile App (i.e. 'Doorstep Banking (DSB)' can be downloaded from Google play store), Website (https://doorstepbanks.com/ and dsb.imfast.co.in/doorstep/login) or Toll-Free Number (18001213721, 18001037188."Pensioners living abroad get exemption from personal appearance subject to production of a Life Certificate signed by an officer of the bank under the second schedule of the RBI Act, 1934. It can also be signed by the Diplomatic Representative of India. An authorized official of the Indian Embassy, High Commission or Consul of Indian consulate are authorized on verification of photographs pasted in the PPO / Passport or any other such document. In case the pensioner is unable to visit, a Doctor's certificate showing pensioner's inability to present himself/herself in person, Embassy of India / High Commission / Consulate may assist for submission for this certificate."The State Bank of India has launched a website Pension Seva Portal. Pensioners can submit Life Certificate physically at any of the SBI's branches and their status of Life Certificate can be viewed through this portal besides there are other services such as downloading Form 16, pension slip, arrear calculation, viewing pension transaction, investment-related details and pension profile details with ease."All PDAs are advised to take compliance with the office memorandum of the Department of Pension and Pensioners' Welfare (DoPPW) and asked to give wide publicity of the same among pensioners so that it can facilitate annual verification for pensioners at ease. The last date to submit life certificates this year is on November 30.