In case of death of a pensioner, all money payable to the pensioner on account of pension are payable to the nominee of the deceased pensioner. In the absence of any valid nomination made by the pensioner, the arrears of his/her pension are paid to the legal heir. However, dependants of some pensioners expressed difficulties in obtaining the legal heir-ship certificates and represented that the necessity of production of legal heir-ship certificates may be waived where the amount of arrears payable is small.
In such cases a provision had been made in 1985 for Payment of Lifetime Arrears of Pension on the basis of any documentary proof regarding the relationship and heir-ship of the claimant if the gross amount of arrears does not exceed Rs.25,000. If the gross amount did not exceed Rs.5,000 and case represented no peculiar features, the Accounts Officer was authorised to make the payment on his own authority.
The Government has further looked into the matter and decided to increase the limits of Rs.5000 and Rs.25000 to Rs.50,000 and Rs.2,50,000 respectively.
At present in the event of death of a family pensioner, the right to receive any arrears of family pension automatically passes on to the eligible member of the family next in line. Where there is no member in the family who is eligible to receive family pension after the death of the family pensioner, the payment of arrears of family pension is made on the basis of succession certificate. Now, it has also been decided that the payment of arrears of family pension up to Rs.2,50,000 may be made where no member of family is eligible to receive family pension.
Detailed instructions are available at Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare’s website www.persmin.nic.in.
– PIB
