No delay in central govt employees' pension: Govt asks authorities to strictly follow this timeline to process pension on time

The central government has taken serious note of the delay in processing pension cases, which is causing undue hardship to central government pensioners. To address this issue, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (Expenditure Coordination Section), Ministry of Finance has issued an Office Memorandum asking authorities to strictly adhere to the timelines prescribed in the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021. "As per the CCS (Pension) Rules 2021, it is mandatory to process pension cases within the stipulated timelines to ensure timely payment of pensions to retirees," the memorandum notes.

Here is a timeline that central government employees who are about to retire, should follow to get pensions on time after retirement.

As per the rules, verifying service records and other preparatory work should begin one year before a central government employee is due to retire. The central government employee must submit the necessary forms six months before retirement to the Head of the Office. The Head of the Office is then required to send the pension case to the Pension Accounting Offices (PAOs) four months before retirement. The Pension Accounting Offices should issue the Pension Payment Order (PPO) and send it to the Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO) one month before retirement.


The rules also provide for the sanction of provisional pensions in cases where a government servant is likely to retire before the finalisation of their pension and gratuity.

"To ensure timely payment of retirement dues in all cases, all the PAOs are directed to circulate the timelines for processing pension cases of employees to the Head of the Offices, as per the Annexure," the OM stated.

Timeline for processing pension cases for the central government employees retiring during the year 2024-25

1. Name of the pensioner
2. Date of retirement
3. Date of submission of documents by pensioner to the Head of the Office (six months before the retirement)
4. Submission of pension case by Head of the Office to Pension Accounting Offices (not more than 4 months)
5. Finalisation of pension by Pension Accounting Office and sending the same to Central Pension Accounting Office (one month before the retirement date

Form 6-A, a single unified form for pensioners launched

To enhance the ease of living for senior citizens and pensioners, Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh earlier launched a single unified form, merging nine separate forms into one Form 6-A. Additionally, he announced the integration of e-HRMS with Bhavishya, a pivotal step towards simplifying pension-related processes. The new unified form is designed to streamline the pension application process, reducing the complexity of handling multiple forms and significantly cutting down on the time and effort required. The new single simplified pension application form 6-A will be available in Bhavishya/e-HRMS for all central government employees retiring from December 2024 onwards, according to news agency ANI. Retiring officials using e-HRMS will complete Form 6-A through the platform (for superannuation cases only), while those not on e-HRMS will use Bhavishya to fill out the form. The new form consolidates nine existing forms/formats, specifically Forms 6, 8, 4, 3, A, Format 1, Format 9, FMA, and the Zero Option Form.

This user-friendly approach is expected to benefit millions of senior citizens, enabling them to manage their pension-related matters with greater ease and convenience.