Deadline to opt for UPS extended from June 30, 2025, for government employees under NPS; Check new last date to evaluate, decide

The Finance Ministry has extended the deadline to decide between the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) and the National Pension System (NPS) to September 30, 2025, from the earlier deadline of June 30, 2025. The deadline has been extended by three months to provide more time to the central government employees to decide whether they want to switch to the UPS or stay with the NPS. The extension has been announced via a press release today.

As per the press release issued, "In view of representations received from stakeholders requesting an extension of the cut-off date, the Government of India has decided to extend the cut-off date for exercising the option for UPS by three months, i.e., up to 30 September 2025 for eligible existing employees, past retirees, and the legally wedded spouses of deceased past retirees."




UPS, a pension scheme, came into existence on April 1, 2025. The pension scheme offers an assured payout to the UPS pensioners and a lump sum payout on retirement. The pension scheme was launched as an alternative to the National Pension System. NPS offers no assured pension payout in comparison to the Unified Pension Scheme. Recently, the benefit of gratuity has also been extended to government employees who opt for the Unified Pension Scheme.

What would have happened if a government employee failed to opt for UPS by June 30, 2025?
According to the FAQs issued by UPS, if the government fails to provide an option to switch to the Unified Pension Scheme, then it would be assumed that the government employee has opted for NPS without the UPS option.

Can a government employee switch back to NPS once they have opted for UPS?
A government employee cannot switch back to NPS once UPS has been opted. The option to choose UPS is final and irrevocable.

Who is eligible to switch from NPS to UPS?
Following category of government employees are eligible to choose from NPS to UPS:
a) Exisiting central government employee in service as of April 1, 2025
b) Central government employee who retired on or before March 31, 2025 and specifies the following conditions:
- Superannuated after minimum 10 years of service
- has retired under Fundamental Rules 56(j) (which is not treated as penalty under Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965), on or before 31st March 2025,
- Legally wedded spouse of deceased subscriber eligible under UPS.

What is the deadline to opt for UPS by a newly recruited government employee?
A newly recruited government employee is required to opt for the Unified Pension Scheme within thirty days of joining.

What will happen to the existing corpus once a central government employee opts for the UPS?
Once the government employee opts for the Unified Pension Scheme, the corpus will get transferred to the PRAN tagged under UPS.