Pension Rule Change- There is a big update for pensioners. Army personnel and employees posted in various departments of the Central Government keep raising their problems and demands on different platforms from time to time. Employees’ unions and other representative organizations have recently written letters to the Central Government on issues like family pension, One Rank One Pension (OROP) and pension commutation and have also held discussions.
To resolve these issues and work in the interest of the employees, the National Council of JCM i.e. Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM) is also actively discussing. This council is a joint body of employee organizations and government officials, which is working to improve the dialogue between the employees and the government and resolve disputes.
The Central Government held the 34th meeting of SCOVA (Standing Committee of Voluntary Agencies) at Vigyan Bhavan in Delhi on 11 March 2025. Many important problems related to retired government employees and defense pensioners were raised in this meeting. The meeting was chaired by the Union Minister of State (Personnel).
It was told in the meeting that after shifting to the SPARSH portal of the Ministry of Defense, many elderly pensioners are facing problems in getting pension. Especially those whose old records are incomplete are facing problems in getting additional pension, restoration of pension commutation, and timely payment.
SPARSH (System for Pension Administration – Raksha) is a digital scheme of the Ministry of Defense, which was launched in October 2020. It is operated by the Defense Accounts Department based in Prayagraj. Now pensioners do not have to go to the office again and again — they can check the pension status, make changes and lodge complaints from home.
Earlier, the pension process involved multiple agencies, long lines of banks and a lot of paperwork, due to which delays, errors and lack of information were common. But SPARSH has brought the entire process under one roof and made it digital. Now, everything from pension approval to its direct transfer to accounts is done online.
Pensioners living abroad are facing difficulty in submitting Digital Life Certificate (DLC). On this, the government said that such people can submit DLC through the Indian Embassy and other digital measures are also being worked on to make this work easier. The government has directed the Ministry of Defence to issue a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) document on problems related to the SPARSH portal to help pensioners.
Government will formulate a new policy on OROP
Problems related to One Rank One Pension (OROP) also came up in the meeting. On this, the government said that this issue will be discussed separately with the Department of Expenditure and a policy will be made.
Demand to reduce the deduction from 15 years to 12 years
At present, the pensioners who take commuted pension, i.e. lump sum amount, its deduction is done for 15 years. But now the interest rates of RBI have come down, so the pensioners say that this period of 15 years is too much. They demanded that this deduction period be reduced to 12 years so that more money is not recovered from them.
The process of starting family pension should be easy
When a pensioner passes away, his family faces a lot of difficulty in starting the family pension. On this, the Pensioners Association demanded from the government that a common procedure (SOP) should be made, so that the family of the deceased pensioner can get pension quickly and easily.