Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Sunday said a deceased government employee's child, who is suffering from a mental disorder, is entitled to a family pension.
He said this public reiteration was needed because the Department of Pension and Pensioners' Welfare has noticed that in some cases banks are not allowing family pension to such children and are insisting on a guardianship certificate from courts.
Singh, the Union Minister of State for Personnel, emphasised that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi the government follows the mantra of good governance to provide "ease of living" for the common man.
In that spirit, the provision of nomination for family pension is intended to avoid any hassle for a child, suffering from a mental disability, in obtaining guardianship certificate from the court or in claiming family pension after the death of his/her parents, Singh said.
Therefore, insisting on a guardianship certificate by a bank in such cases defeats the very purpose of such nomination and also amounts to violation of the statutory provisions of Central Civil Service (Pension) Rules, 2021, the minister said.
Chairman and managing directors of all pension disbursing banks have been advised to issue suitable instructions to their centralised pension processing centres/pension paying branches for payment of family pension to a mentally retarded child through the person nominated by the government servant/pensioner/ family pensioner under the statutory provisions of the rules and not to insist for a guardianship certificate, Singh said.
The Department of Pensions has introduced many path-breaking reforms including relaxation in the provision of family pension for divorced daughters, the introduction of face recognition tech through a mobile app for ease in submitting life certificates by elderly pensioners among others, Singh added.
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Published 30 January 2022, 16:34 IST