What is Pension for Ex-Servicemen

This Department administers (i) Pension Regulations for the Army (PRA), 1961, revised as PRA, 2008 (ii) Pension Regulations for the Air Force, 1961, and (iii) Navy (Pension) Regulation, 1964. It also deals with Entitlement Rules for Casualty Pensionary Awards, 2008.

Kinds of Pension

• Service Pension – Granted @ 50% of emoluments last drawn or average of reckonable emoluments during the last 10 months, whichever is more beneficial to pensioners subject to minimum of Rs. 9000 /p.m. The minimum qualifying service to earn pension is 20 years in case of Commissioned Officer and 15 years in the case Personnel Below Officer Rank.
• Family Pension –Granted @ 30% of reckonable emoluments last drawn subject to a minimum of Rs.9000/- p.m. (in case of natural death of the individual).
• Special Family Pension – Granted at a uniform rate of 60% of reckonable emoluments last drawn by the deceased (in case of death of a individual Attributable to or Aggravated by Military Service).
• Liberalized Family Pension – Equal to the reckonable emoluments last drawn by the deceased granted to the families of personnel killed in war or war like operations, counter-insurgency operations, encounter with terrorists etc.
• Disability Pension – Granted in invalided out cases due to disability Attributable to or Aggravated by Military Service. It consists of Disability Element and Service Element. Service Element is equal to the retiring pension i.e. 50% of the reckonable emoluments last drawn. Disability Element would be 30% of reckonable emoluments last drawn for 100% disability. For lesser percentage of disability, the amount of disability element is reduced proportionally. No disability element shall be payable for disability assessed as less than 20%. In other than invalided out cases, disability element is granted for disability Attributable to or Aggravated by Military Service, in addition to Service Pension, if otherwise admissible.
          First Appeal: If a person is aggrieved by denial of entitlement, he may, if so desires, submit an appeal before Record Office/ Service Hqrs. within six months, which could be considered by the Appellate Committee for First Appeal constituted as per provision contained in clause (I) (a) of Entitlement Rules for Casualty Pensionary Awards to the Armed Forces Personnel, 2008. The Appellate Committee’s decision for upholding or rejecting the appeal will be by consensus.
           Second Appeal: Any person, aggrieved by the decision in the First Appeal, may file a Second Appeal within Six months of the decision of the Appellate Committee for First Appeal to the Committee constituted for this purpose as per provision contained in clause (I) (b) of Entitlement Rules for Casualty Pensionary Awards to the Armed Forces Personnel, 2008.
• War Injury Pension – The rates of War Injury Element for 100% disability for various rank shall be equal to the reckonable emoluments last drawn in case of invalided out and 60% of reckonable emoluments last drawn in case of discharge, which would be proportionately reduced where disability is less than 100%.
• Invalid Pension – Invalid pension may be granted to the Service Personnel who is invalided out of service on account of disability which is accepted as Neither Attributable Nor Aggravated (NANA). Minimum qualifying service required for Invalid pension was 10 years. The requirement of minimum 10 years service has been done away with vide DESW letter dated 16.07.2020. The benefit of said letter will be available to those Armed Forces Personnel who were in service on or after 04.01.2019 and invalided out from service on account of any bodily or mental infirmity which is Neither Attributable to Nor Aggravated (NANA) by Military service and which permanently incapacitated/incapacitates them from military service as well as civil re-employment.
• Reservist Pension – Granted on completion of the prescribed combined Colour+ Reserve service of not less than 15 years. It is 2/3rd of the minimum pension admissible to a Sepoy.

Defence Pensioners and Disbursement Agencies

There are more than 26 lakhs Armed Forces pensioners/family pensioners and approximately 55,000 pensioners are added every year. The pension is disbursed across the country through 21 Public Sector Banks, 03 Private Sector Banks viz HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank, 308 Treasuries (Active), 64 Defence Pension Disbursing offices (DPDOs), 01 Post Office, 05 Pay Accounts Offices(PAOs) scattered all over India. For the Armed Forces Pensioners residing in Nepal disbursement of pension is done through 03 Pension Paying Offices (PPOs).

Defence Pension Adalat

A large community of Ex-servicemen specially Personnel Below Officers Rank (PBOR) and their families are settled in the interiors and remote areas. Defence Pension Adalats provide a credible forum for redressal of grievances of the defence pensioners near to their place of residence/work. Since representatives of concerned organizations are present in the Adalat, it is possible to take appropriate decisions on the spot to the extent possible. The Adalat also disseminates latest information, about orders circulars, procedures, forms and formats. Since 1987, 173 pension Adalats have been held so far across the country. During the last three years, approximately 13,627 grievances were received and 12,076 were settled in the Pension Adalats.

Pension Grievances

DESW receives on an average around 600 to 1000 representations in a month from Ex-Servicemen. These are examined by the concerned officials and referred to the concerned agencies for redressal with a copy to the individual so that he could know as to where his case has been referred. State Governments have also been requested to set up grievance redressal mechanisms for the ex-servicemen. Further, around 500-700 online grievances are also being received through pgportal.gov.in, an online grievance redressal mechanism, which are being processed electronically with the concerned organization/Service Hqrs who redress the grievance of the ex-servicemen and status of redressal is also updated in the portal. The petitioner can see the status of his/her grievance electronically by simply clicking their registration number in the https://pgportal.gov.in/.