In the backdrop of the COVID 19 pandemic, the government has provided greater flexibility in norms for the submission of the important documents. The Common Service Centre (CSC) network will be used by the retirement fund body ‘Employee Provident Fund Organization’ (EPFO), for life certification of its pensioners, an official statement said. It added, “through over 3.65 lakh CSCs, the life certificate (Jeevan Parmaan) can be submitted by a huge number of pensioners,”
The Ministry of Labour and Employment under which EPFO falls said in a statement “The move is aimed at bringing service delivery closer to the doorsteps of EPS pensioner, especially during these challenging times of COVID 19 pandemic, EPFO has proactively partnered with Common Service Centre (CSC) to provide the facility to submit Digital Jeevan Pramaan,”.
EPS pensioners are required to submit their life certificates every year to continue to draw a pension. In addition to CSCs, through 135 regional offices and 117 district offices and pension disbursing banks the EPS pensioners can also submit Jeevan Parmaan. A multi-agency model adopted by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) empowers EPS pensioners with choice and autonomy to select the service delivery agency as per their convenience, it added.
The net new enrollments with old age pension body EPFO dipped to 5.72 lakh in March 2020 from 10.21 lakh within the previous month as per its payroll data, providing an employment perspective in the formal sector. As the government announced a lockdown on 24th March 2020, the filing date was extended to May 15, 2020, according to ECR. EPFO manages social security funds of workers in the organized sector in India and it has more than 6 crore active members.
At any time during the year, EPS pensioners can submit Digital Jeevan Pramaan as per their convenience, as a key policy change allows them. For one year from the date of submission, the certificate shall remain valid. November was the term for pensioners to submit the life certificate earlier. But this led to predicaments faced by pensioners and created a huge number of complaints on account of the stoppage of pension.
