Submit life certificate by May 25 to continue pension: Defence ministry to ex-servicemen

Chandigarh, May 18

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has asked defence pensioners to complete the process of submitting their annual life certificate by May 25 to ensure smooth processing of monthly pension.

Non-updation of records by many pensioners in time had resulted in the pension of several thousand ex-servicemen across all ranks not being credited to their bank accounts earlier this month.

“Upon verification of data received till May 17, it has been noticed that 43,774 pensioners who have been migrated to the System for Pension Administration — Rakshasa (SPARSH) have not completed their annual identification, neither online nor through their respective banks by November 2021,” the MoD said in a statement issued today.

Further, for pre-2016 retirees who continue to be on the old system of pension, it was found that nearly 1.2 lakh pensioners have not completed their annual identification through any of the means available, the statement added.

The process of annual identification and life certification is a statutory requirement for continued and timely credit of pension. There are several specified online and offline modes for submitting and verifying identification and life certificate.

However, the pension for April 2022 was credited through a special one-time waiver for 58,275 pensioners out of 4.47 lakh pensioners on SPARSH, as their annual identification details could not be verified by their respective banks by month-closing.