This step of the government will provide financial security to the employees immediately after retirement. This decision is especially a relief for those employees who, for some reason, want to take voluntary retirement before completing their job.
The central government has given a big relief to the employees. The government has assured that if an employee takes voluntary retirement under UP S (Unified Pension Scheme), he will get the benefit of pension immediately. Earlier in such a situation, employees had to wait a long time to get pension.
But now with this step of the government, employees will get financial security immediately after retirement. This decision is especially a relief for those employees who, for some reason, want to take voluntary retirement before completing the job. Let us tell you that this has been said in a report of Financial Express.
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Questions raised on Unified Pension Scheme (UPS)
When the central government introduced the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) as an alternative to the National Pension System (NPS) for about 24 lakh central government employees, employee unions and experts pointed out several flaws in it. One of the major concerns was that if an employee takes voluntary retirement, he will not be given pension benefits till the actual retirement age.
Employees’ demands on NPS vs UPS
A large section of central government employees and pensioners and their unions have been demanding for a long time that the National Pension System (NPS) be abolished. NPS was implemented in 2004, when the government discontinued the Old Pension Scheme (OPS). However, the armed forces were excluded from NPS.
In view of the ever-increasing demands, the central government announced the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) last year, which created a new option by combining some features of NPS and OPS. But even after 5 months of launch, UPS has not got much success. So far only about 1% of the employees have come forward to adopt this new scheme, while a large number of employees are still demanding the restoration of OPS. This provision became the cause of discontent among the employees and the government was asked to change it.
Employees are worried about UPS and VRS
Employee unions have raised several issues, the most important of which is the delay in getting pension to employees who take VRS (voluntary retirement). Last month, the Government Employees National Confederation (GENC) met the Secretary of the Department of Pension and Pensioners Welfare (DoPPW). GENC, which is an organization associated with the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), raised several important issues related to the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS).
The biggest problem was that if an employee takes VRS under UPS, he will get the benefit of pension only when he completes the age of 60 years (superannuation). That is, after retirement, he will have to live without pension for many years. On this, the government assured that the department will soon issue clear guidelines and efforts will be made to find a solution to this problem.
Last date to choose UPS
The new last date for choosing the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) for central government employees has been fixed as 30 September 2025. Earlier its deadline was 30 June 2025, but later it was extended by 90 days to 30 September, so that employees could get another chance to join it. The government has also added some new features to this scheme to attract more employees. Now employees in UPS will be given the facility to switch to NPS once. However, this decision has to be taken one year before retirement or three months before voluntary retirement (VRS), whichever is earlier.
