Every Second Pensioner Under Employees' Pension Scheme 1995 Gets Less Than Rs 1,500 Monthly
At present, the minimum monthly pension entitlement under the scheme is Rs 1,000.
Every second pensioner under Employees' Pension Scheme 1995 (EPS-95) administered by retirement fund body EPFO gets less than Rs 1,500 a month, as per the data of March 2025, Parliament was informed on Thursday.
The official data also showed only 53,541 pensioners or 0.65% of the total 81,48,490 pensions under the scheme get a monthly pension of over Rs 6,000 as of March 31, 2025.
The data has come in view of trade unions' demand for a minimum monthly pension of Rs 9,000 under the EPS-95, which was part of the 17-point charter of demand submitted to the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
At present, the minimum monthly pension entitlement under the scheme is Rs 1,000.
Total number of pensioners under Employees' Pension Scheme as on Marc 31, 2025 was 81,48,490, informed Minister of State for Labour and Employment Shobha Karandlaj in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.
She also informed the House that the number of pensioners receiving less than Rs 1,500 as monthly pension as on March 31, 2025 was 49,15,416.
Thus almost every second person or over half of the pensioners were getting less than Rs 1,500 monthly pension.
The minister also informed that the number of pensioners receiving less than Rs 4,000 as monthly pension as on March 31, 2025 was 78,69,560.
The number of pensioners receiving less than Rs 6,000 a month was 80,94,949, as on March 31, 2025.
Thus the number of pensioners receiving more then Rs 6,000 monthly pension under the scheme was just 53,541 or 0.65%.
The minister also informed the House that the total amount disbursed under the pension scheme increased to Rs 23,027.93 crore in 2023-24 from Rs 22,112.83 crore in 2022-23.
"The total amount held in inoperative accounts as on March 31, 2025 is Rs 10,898.07 crore. The data is un-audited and provisional as annual accounts for the FY 2024-25 are under preparation," she told the House.
The interest income of the EPFO has increased to Rs 58,668.73 crore in 2023-24 from Rs 52,171 crore in 2022-23, the reply showed.
It also showed that the other income (penal damages, 7Q interest, etc.) has also increased to Rs 863.62 crore in 2023-24 from Rs 564.21 crore in 2022-23.
