New Delhi:  The central government has made a big announcement for government employees and approved the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS). Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav gave this information on Saturday. Under this scheme, government employees will be given a guaranteed pension after retirement.

It is worth noting that there was a long standing demand for reform in the New Pension Scheme (NPS) of the Central Government employees. Now the government has fulfilled the demand and announced the Unified Pension Scheme. Giving information about the cabinet decisions, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnav told the media, 'There has been a demand for reform in NPS from the government employees. PM Narendra Modi constituted a committee on this under the leadership of TV Somanathan in April 2023. After extensive consultation and discussion including JCM (Joint Consultative Mechanism), the committee has recommended the Unified Pension Scheme. Today the Union Cabinet has approved this scheme.

What is Integrated Pension Scheme?

Let us tell you that Unified Pension Scheme is a new pension scheme for government employees. Under this, employees will be given a guaranteed pension after retirement. This amount will be 50% of the average basic pay of the 12 months before retirement.

Employees will be entitled to get this pension after 25 years of service. On the other hand, if a pensioner dies, then his family will get 60 percent of the pension received till that time. Apart from this, if the service of the employee is less than 25 years and more than 10 years, then the amount of pension will be decided on the basis of proportional allocation. The important aspect is that no matter how many working years the employee has, the minimum amount of his pension will not be less than Rs 10 thousand.

Who can join UPS?

Ashwini Vaishnav said that central government employees will have the right to decide whether to remain in the New Pension Scheme (NPS) or join the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS). He also said that this will apply to all those who have already retired under NPS since 2004.

Though the new scheme will be effective from April 1, 2025, all those who have retired under NPS since its inception and those who retire by March 31, 2025 will also be eligible for all these benefits of UPS. They will get their past dues after adjusting whatever money they have withdrawn.