Unified Pension Scheme to benefit 63K SCR employees

Hyderabad: Around 63,000 South Central Railway employees will benefit from the recently approved ‘Unified Pension Scheme’ for the Central and State government employees, stated P Kishore Babu, Principal Chief Personnel Officer, on Tuesday.

According to SCR officials, UPS can be opted for by all Central government employees who are subscribers to the new scheme. Around 23 lakh Central employees will benefit from UPS. Around 63,000 SCR employees will benefit, or about 75 per cent of total staff in the zone.

Kishore Babu stated that the scheme will come into effect from April 1, 2025, and has five major benefits: assured pension, assured family pension, assured minimum pension, inflation indexation, and lump-sum payment at superannuation in addition to gratuity. It is more advantageous, as it offers an assured pension, thereby ensuring honour and financial security for the staff. It is important to spread awareness about the new scheme so that more government employees can avail of the benefits.

The benefits of UPS are 50 per cent of average basic pay drawn over the last 12 months prior to superannuation for a minimum qualifying service of 25 years. Proportionate for lesser service periods up to a minimum of 10 years of service. In the case of an assured family pension, it is 60 per cent of the pension of the employee.

The assured minimum pension is Rs 10,000 a month on superannuation after minimum 10 years of service; dearness relief is based on the All-India Consumer Price Index (AICPI) for industrial workers (IW) in the case of serving employees.

Existing as well as future employees will have the option of joining NPS or UPS. Once the choice is exercised, employee contribution will not increase. The government will provide additional contribution for implementing UPS by increasing from 14 to 18.5 per cent, he added.