EPS 95 Pension 2025, EPS News: Is the central government going to increase the pension under EPS from Rs 1000 to Rs 7500? Know what is the update…
EPS 95 Pension Hike News: There has been a demand for increase in pension under the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS) for a long time. Many different organizations of trade unions and pensioners are constantly asking the government to increase the pension amount. In the year 2014, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) had fixed the minimum guaranteed pension at Rs 1000 for those EPFO members who contribute to the pension scheme for at least 10 years. However, the government has not made any change in the minimum pension under EPS despite the demand from trade unions and employee representative bodies.
But a hope has now arisen again! EPS was started 30 years ago and is also known as EPS-95. Probably for the first time, it will be examined by a third party i.e. external experts.
A standing committee of Parliament has asked the Ministry of Labor to complete the third-party evaluation of EPS within a fixed time frame. The panel headed by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Basavaraj Bommai wants the evaluation process to be completed by the end of 2025.
This parliamentary panel has also asked the Ministry of Labor to “immediately start work” on the matter of increasing the minimum pension of Rs 1,000 under EPS.
The committee has said in its report that the cost of living has increased “many times” in the last few years, that is, inflation has increased many times, but the pension amount has remained the same.
30 years of EPS
Let us tell you that EPS was started in 1995. And the purpose of this scheme was to provide a permanent income to the employees after retirement.
In its report, the committee said, ‘Given that the evaluation of the scheme is being done by a third party after 30 years, the committee strongly recommends that this work should be completed within a fixed time frame, maximum by the end of 2025.’
The ministry has informed the committee that the process of this first third-party review has been started through Request for Proposal (RFP) and the work is still going on. The committee was also told that no such review has been done on EPS before.
The report further said: “Keeping in view the manifold increase in the cost of living in 2024 as compared to 2014 and other related factors, there is a need to seriously consider increasing this amount…”
What the Labor Ministry told the panel
The ministry told the committee that a proposal to increase the minimum pension of EPS to Rs 2000 was sent to the Finance Ministry in 2020, but it was not approved. Later, the proposal also became part of the discussion ahead of the 2024-25 Budget.
Ahead of this year’s Budget, a delegation of EPS-95 retired employees met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and put forth their demand to increase the EPS pension to Rs 7,500 per month. After that meeting, the EPS-95 National Movement Committee had said that the Finance Minister had assured them that the government would consider their demands.
For the past several years, employees’ unions have been demanding a hike in the pension amount for EPFO members. They want the amount to be fixed at Rs 7,500 and also want DA benefits to compensate for rising inflation.
