THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Come March, a large number of people are likely to find themselves excluded from the social security pension list. The development comes in the wake of a tightening of policies to prune ineligible beneficiaries.
At present, there are 52 lakh beneficiaries under different categories of the social security pension scheme. The eligibility criteria for social security pension in all categories is that the beneficiary’s annual family income should be below Rs 1 lakh.
However, between July 2013 and June 2014, the income limit was raised to Rs 3 lakh by the then UDF government, and over 6 lakh people enrolled in the scheme during this period. Assuming that the majority of those who applied then are with a family income of above Rs 1 lakh, the government had asked pensioners (who joined until December 31, 2019) to submit fresh income certificates to revalidate their eligibility. The deadline issued was February 28.
The government believes the move will help prune the list of ineligible beneficiaries. It is also cross-checking the beneficiaries’ financial status with other databases. The government spends nearly Rs 900 crore in monthly pensions to about 60 lakh beneficiaries under various welfare fund boards.