EPS pensioners: Beginning January 1, 2025, retired individuals covered under the Employees' Pension Scheme (EPS), 1995, will be able to conveniently access their pension funds from any bank branch located in India. In this regard, the Centre informed that EPFO has completed full scale rollout of the new Centralized Pension Payments System (CPPS) under Employees’ Pension Scheme 1995 in December 2024.
In September 2024, the CPPS was authorised by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Mansukh Mandaviya. This system enables 7.8 million members of the Employees' Pension Scheme (EPS) to access their pensions from any bank branch nationwide.
Announcing the rollout, Mandaviya said, "The full-scale implementation of the Centralised Pension Payments System (CPPS) across all Regional Offices of EPFO is a historic milestone. This transformative initiative empowers pensioners to access their pension seamlessly from any bank, any branch, anywhere in the country. It eliminates the need for physical verification visits and simplifies the pension disbursement process. CPPS is a testament to our commitment to modernizing EPFO services and ensuring convenience, transparency, and efficiency for our pensioners. With this rollout, we are setting a new benchmark in pension service delivery, aligning with the vision of a tech-enabled and member-centric EPFO.”
About Rs 1,570 crore pension was disbursed to more than 68 Lakh pensioners pertaining to all 122 pension disbursing Regional offices of EPFO for December 2024.
Starting from January 2025, the CPPS system will facilitate the smooth disbursement of pensions across India without the requirement of transferring Pension Payment Orders (PPO) between different offices, even if the pensioner relocates or changes banks/branches. This advancement will provide significant relief to retirees moving back to their hometowns.
The contribution to the Employee Pension Scheme (EPS) is determined by both employees and employers. Employees are required to contribute 12% of their basic salary, dearness allowance, and retaining allowance to the EPF. On the other hand, employers contribute 12% of the employee's salary, with 8.33% allocated to the EPS and 3.67% to the EPF. To be eligible for the EPS scheme, an EPF member's basic salary must not exceed Rs 15,000 per month starting from September 1, 2014.
Besides, the EPF death claims processing procedure has recently been updated. Going forward, temporarily, physical claims without Aadhaar linking may be considered, subject to authorisation from the Officer in Charge (OIC) via an e-office file. The file must contain evidence of the authentication process carried out to verify the deceased member's status and authenticate the claimants. To deter deceptive withdrawal attempts, further verification measures, at the discretion of the OIC, may be employed.