Every retired employee deserves to receive some benefits after completing so many years of service in a particular sector. Many of them work for the public sector like government jobs, for years altogether. They receive lots of benefits by working for the government like public holidays, fixed shifts, post-retirement benefits, etc. The Indian government ensures each of its employees gets sufficient income while working, as well as post-retirement.
The government introduced the Atal Pension Yojana in 2015 to provide pension benefits to all those employees belonging to the unorganised sector of employment. The scheme is regulated and controlled by the Pension Funds Regulatory Authority of India (PFRDA). Organised sector employees can also invest in the plan to secure an income source in their old age.
The APY scheme is an extension of the National Pension Scheme (NPS) which replaces the previously launched Swavalamban Pension Yojana that did not fare well. All accounts opened in the year 2015 were eligible for a 5-year co-contribution from the Indian government. The scheme aims at mitigating the financial obligations of individuals that develop after their retirement. They encourage individuals to start saving at an early age. The amount of pension that the individual receives depends directly on the monthly contributions made and their age.
The beneficiaries of the scheme receive their accumulated corpus in the form of monthly payments. If the recipient expires due to any reason, the spouse shall receive the benefits of the pension. In case both do not live longer, the nominee of the beneficiary gets the lump sum amount.
What are the features of the scheme?
The Atal Pension Yojana scheme provides features to all those who have subscribed to it. The programme offers many attractive facilities and policies as mentioned below:
Automatic debit:
The beneficiary should link the bank account with the pension account, and each month, a specific sum gets debited directly. All the subscribers must ensure enough account balance to suffice the automatic debit, failing which there are penalties.
Facility to increase the contribution:
A person’s contributions decide the pension amount that will be credited once the person has crossed the age of 60. Different contributions lead to varying pension amounts. Account-holders can also make enormous contributions based upon an increased financial capacity to receive better returns in the future. The subscriber can alter the amount of input once a year.
Guaranteed pension:
All the beneficiaries of the Atal Pension Yojana can choose the amount of the periodic pension they would like to receive, for example, INR 1,000 to INR 5,000, depending upon their monthly contribution towards the scheme.
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