AADHAR NOT MANDATORY FOR GETTING PENSION IN DELHI
NEW DELHI: In a bid to give a major relief to pensioners, Delhi Cabinet on Tuesday approved the social welfare department's proposal to delink Aadhar and Aadharlinked bank account for receiving the old age, disability and widow pensions being provided by the Delhi government.
The decision was taken in the Delhi Cabinet meeting which was chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi government said in a statement. The Social Welfare Department will remit at old rates all pensions stopped due to lack of Aadhaar. Further, an enhanced pension will be remitted with effect from April to all beneficiaries who are getting the pension on old rates so that beneficiaries are not penalised for system-related reasons.
The department is responsible for implementing the Old Age Assistance, commonly known as Old Age Pension for senior citizens of Delhi. This assistance is available to all senior citizens who are residents of Delhi for at least five years and having a family income of Rs 1,00,000 or less per annum.
Currently, the quantum of assistance is Rs 2,000 per month to beneficiaries between 60-69 year and Rs 2,500 per month to beneficiaries 70 years and above. However, an additional Rs 500 per month is given to beneficiaries between 60-69 years belonging to SC/ St/minority categories. The department has remitted assistance to 4.18 lakh beneficiaries in April 2018.
The department is also implementing Financial Assistance Scheme for Persons with Special Needs, commonly known as Disability Pension. As per current scheme norms, this assistance is available to all persons with a disability between 0-60 years who are residents of Delhi for at least five years and having the family income of Rs 1,00,000 or less per annum. Currently, the quantum of assistance is Rs 2,500 per month. The department has remitted assistance to 77,542 beneficiaries for April-may.
While it was decided by the Cabinet in 2016 not to insist upon Aadhaar for remittance of pension, the enhanced pension was mandated to be given only to Aadhaar-seeded accounts. Therefore, a total of 33,191 Old Age Pension beneficiaries and 9,799 Disability Pension beneficiaries are unable to take the benefit of enhanced pension for no fault of theirs, merely because of systemic issues of the banks or the department.
Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act, 2016, clearly stipulates that in no case beneficiary be denied benefit for want of Aadhaar or failure of Aadhaar authentication. It further stipulates that such individuals should be offered alternate and a viable mean of identification and the departments using Aadhaar as an identifier for delivery of service and benefits to necessarily have exception handling mechanism.
The department has received another circular from UIDAI that beneficiaries are not to be denied the benefit, subsidy or service due to not having Aadhaar, failure of authentication or any other extraneous circumstances. UIDAI has further suggested following exception handling mechanism to ensure seamless delivery of subsidy, benefit or service to the beneficiary.