New Delhi: Pensioners covered under the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation's (EPFO) pension scheme will be able to receive their pension from any bank or its branch from January, Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Wednesday. Mandaviya has approved the proposal for a Centralised Pension Payment System (CPPS) for the Employees' Pension Scheme (EPS) 1995, the labour ministry said in a statement. He is also the chairperson of the Central Board of Trustees (CBT), the apex decision-making body of the EPFO.

Pension money can be obtained from any bank

The centralized pension payment system will enable pension distribution through any bank or any branch across the country. The minister said, 'The approval of CPPS is a milestone in the direction of modernization of the Employees' Provident Fund Organization (EPFO). Under this, pensioners will be able to receive their pension from any bank, any branch anywhere in the country. This initiative will solve the long-standing problems of pensioners.'

More than 78 lakh people will benefit

He said that this is an important step towards our efforts to transform EPFO ​​into a more robust, responsive and tech-enabled organisation to better serve the needs of its members and pensioners. The centralised pension payment system is expected to benefit over 78 lakh EPS-95 pensioners of EPFO.

The centralised system will ensure seamless disbursement of pension across the country without the need to transfer Pension Payment Orders (PPOs) from one office to another. This will be a big relief for pensioners who move to their hometowns after retirement. This facility will be launched from January 1, 2025 as part of EPFO's ongoing information technology modernisation project Centralised IT Integrated System (CITES 2.01).

In the next phase, CPPS will bring about a smooth transition to Aadhaar-based Payment System (ABPS). The new system is a significant change from the existing pension disbursement process under which each regional/zonal office of EPFO ​​had to enter into separate agreements with only three-four banks, the ministry statement said. It said now pensioners will not need to visit the bank branch for verification at the time of pension commencement and the payment will be credited immediately upon release. Along with this, EPFO ​​expects that the new system will significantly reduce pension disbursement costs.