Good News: All central employees involved in UPS will be entitled to retirement and death gratuity, know full details

Union Minister Jitendra Singh said that Central Government employees covered under UPS will now be eligible for retirement and death gratuity benefits in line with the provisions of the Central Civil Services (Payment of Gratuity under NPS) Rules, 2021.

All central government employees covered under the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) will now be eligible for retirement and death gratuity benefits under the Old Pension Scheme (OPS). Union Minister Jitendra Singh gave this information on Wednesday. In the context of this much-awaited demand of a large section of government employees, Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said that this step addresses an important demand of government employees and brings parity in retirement benefits. He said that the new provision reflects the government’s commitment to ensure social security for all categories of employees under the National Pension System (NPS).

Many reforms to empower citizens

Jitendra Singh said in a conference organized on the journey of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions in the last 11 years that many reforms have been done with the aim of simplifying governance, empowering citizens and making the administration humane. He said central government employees covered under the UPS will now be eligible for retirement and death gratuity benefits in line with the provisions of the Central Civil Services (Payment of Gratuity under NPS) Rules, 2021. The Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare (DOPPW), Ministry of Personnel, on Wednesday issued an order on options for central government employees covered under the UPS to avail benefits under the OPS on death of the government employee during service or his termination from government service on account of incapacity or disability.

Employees will get option

DOPPW Secretary V. Srinivas, while talking to PTI, said, “This order gives an employee the option to choose that if he dies during service, then he should be taken under the purview of OPS again. It is progressive in nature and addresses the clarifications being sought by the employees. ” Manjit Singh Patel, President of All India NPS Employees Federation, welcomed this government order and called it a historic and very necessary step of the government.

A large number of employees will opt for UPS

Manjit Singh Patel said that the inclusion of death-cum-retirement gratuity in UPS will remove all the misunderstandings of the employees. He said that in such a situation, now a lot of employees will opt for UPS. DOPPW had notified the Central Civil Services (NPS Implementation) Rules, 2021 to regulate the service-related matters of central government employees coming under NPS. Its Rule 10 provides for an employee covered under NPS to exercise the option to avail benefits under NPS or OPS in the event of death during service or retirement on grounds of invalidity or disability.

What did the Finance Ministry say in the notification

The Finance Ministry had said in a notification issued on January 24 that UPS will be introduced as an option under NPS for employees recruited in the Central Government Civil Services from April 1, 2025. The DOPPW issued another order on Wednesday clarifying that Central Government employees covered under UPS will also be eligible for the benefit of retirement gratuity and death gratuity under the provisions of the Central Civil Services (Payment of Gratuity under National Pension System) Rules, 2021. Srinivas said that this order ‘brings parity between NPS and UPS pensioners and they will also be eligible for gratuity of Rs 25 lakh.’

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