8th Pay Commission news: Pensioners' body seeks clarity on pension revision from PM Modi

The Retired Employees Welfare Association (REWA) has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, raising concerns about retirees who retired before January 1, 2026. The REWA has asked the Finance Ministry to amend the 8th Pay Commission’s terms of reference (ToR) and include pension and family pension revision clauses for such central government retirees.

REWA has also requested the PM that until a formal amendment to the 8th CPC ToR is done, the government should give a clarification or issue a press release to remove confusion among pensioners who retired before January 1 this year.

In the letter dated September 7, 2026, written by Sadhu Singh, general secretary, REWA, and a copy of which has also been sent to the Finance Minister, Finance Secretary and Secretary, Department of Personnel & Pension (DoP&PW), the organisation said that serious confusion and apprehension prevail among 69 lakh pensioners and family pensioners who have retired before January 1, 2026, as to whether the 8th CPC would also recommend revision of their pension and family pension.


Quoting the 8th CPC ToR which were notified in November 2025, the REWA said that Point No. 2(e) of the ToR says that the Commission will ‘review the structure of death-cum-retirement gratuity and pension including NPS/UPS and outside NPS for the employees.’

The REWA says that in the 8th CPC ToR, only the pension of serving employees is mentioned.

“Nothing is clearly written about the revision of pension and family pension of ex-employees, i.e., pensioners who retired before January 1, 2026,” reads the letter.

REWA claims previous pay commissions’ ToRs clearly mentioned provisions for pension and family pension revision.

Citing the example of the 7th Pay Commission ToR, REWA said that the terms of reference had clarity over pension revision.

"To examine, review, evolve and recommend changes relating to pay, allowances, retirement benefits including pension structure and other retirement benefits including revision of pre-retirement pension," REWA quoted the 7th Pay Commission ToR as saying.

REWA claims that in the 6th and 5th Pay Commission’s terms of reference also, the words ‘pensioners and family pensioners’ were explicitly mentioned.

Other pensioner organisations have also demanded 8th CPC ToR amendment

The All India Defence Employees’ Federation (AIDEF), Postal Pensioners Association, Mail Motor Staff (MMS) and the Railway Mail Service (RMS) among other employee bodies have also requested the government to amend the 8th CPC ToR and include pension and family pension terms to it.

Last month, their demand was also backed the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT). The DoPT, in a letter to the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, had referred the ToR amendment request of the AIDEF, MMS and the RMS.

What is NC-JCM’s stand on the inclusion of pension and pension revision words in 8th CPC terms of reference?

In November 2025, the National Council – Joint Consultative Machinery (NC-JCM), the main central government employee body in India, had also written a similar letter to the Prime Minister, asking him to direct the Finance Ministry to include pension and pension revision words in the 8th CPC ToR.

However, last month, Shiva Gopala Mishra, secretary general, NC-JCM, said that pensioners could remain assured that pensions would continue regularly as improvements were being discussed with the 8th Pay Commission.

Employee and pensioner organisations, on the other hand, are not satisfied with verbal assurance. They are seeking notified rules related to pension and family pension that can give legal sanctity to these matters.