Rules at a Glance:Pension Entitlement for Armed Forces Veterans

Rules at a Glance:Pension Entitlement for Armed Forces Veterans 

Indian Armed Forces Officers and JCOs/OR on discharge from service are entitled to get Pension subject to fulfilling some specific criteria :

A. To get Service pension

Veterans (soldier/airman/sailor / officer)  must complete Minimum:

(i)   20 Years service for Commissioned Officers

(ii)   15 Years Service for JCOs/OR

 

B.   To get Disability Pension  

Veterans must

(i)   Be Invalidated out of service due to disability attributable to/aggravated by military service.  Disability   pension comprises two elements  i.e   Service element and disability element.

      (ii)  No minimum service length prescribed to get disability pension in case of medical invalidated cases. 

      (iii)   The following types of discharge are treated as medical invalidment :

(a) Medical release due to unwilling to accept sheltered appointment or non-availability of sheltered appointment. 

(b)   Medical board out being SHAPE-5.

(c)   Released on medical grounds other than discharge at own request and discharge on completion of    terms of engagement.        

         

 C. To get Invalid pension One must

 (i)  Be medical invalidated out of service  as mentioned in para (B-iii) above and rendered less than 15 years of service for JCOs /OR  and Less than 20 Years  service for Commissioned Officer  with disability Not aggravated by and not attributable to military service.

(ii)  Minimum service required 10 years for general cases and in case of the disability which  is fully incapacitated for civil and military both the services, no minimum service criteria is applicable (effected from July 2019).

NB :  The details mentioned above are not exclusive, so many clauses are there in Pension Regulations.  To get full details please follow Pension Regulations of the Army, Navy & Air Force :

Link  :   Pension Regulations for the Army 2008 Part I
Pension Regulations for the Army 2008 Part II
            Pension Regulations for the Air Force, 1961 Part I
Pension Regulations for the Air Force, 1961 Part II
            Navy (Pension) Regulation, 1964

Details of various Types of Military Pension

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• • Service Pension –

 Granted @ 50% of emoluments last drawn or average of reckonable emoluments during the last 10 months, whichever is more beneficial to pensioners subject to minimum of Rs. 9000 /p.m. The minimum qualifying service to earn pension is 20 years in case of Commissioned Officer and 15 years in the case Personnel Below Officer Rank.

• • Family Pension –

Granted @ 30% of reckonable emoluments last drawn subject to a minimum of Rs.9000/- p.m. (in case of natural death of the individual).

• • Special Family Pension –

 Granted at a uniform rate of 60% of reckonable emoluments last drawn by the deceased (in case of death of a individual Attributable to or Aggravated by Military Service).

• • Liberalized Family Pension –

 Equal to the reckonable emoluments last drawn by the deceased granted to the families of personnel killed in war or war like operations, counter-insurgency operations, encounter with terrorists etc.

• • Disability Pension – 

Granted in invalided out cases due to disability Attributable to or Aggravated by Military Service. It consists of Disability Element and Service Element. Service Element is equal to the retiring pension i.e. 50% of the reckonable emoluments last drawn. Disability Element would be 30% of reckonable emoluments last drawn for 100% disability. For lesser percentage of disability, the amount of disability element is reduced proportionally. No disability element shall be payable for disability assessed as less than 20%. In other than invalided out cases, disability element is granted for disability Attributable to or Aggravated by Military Service, in addition to Service Pension, if otherwise admissible.

On Rejection of Pension Application Where to Appeal

• First Appeal:

 If a person is aggrieved by denial of entitlement, he may, if so desires, submit an appeal before Record Office/ Service Hqrs. within six months, which 

could be considered by the Appellate Committee for First Appeal constituted as per provision contained in clause (I)  (a) of Entitlement Rules for Casualty Pensionary Awards to the Armed Forces Personnel, 2008. The Appellate Committee’s decision for upholding or rejecting the appeal will be by consensus.

Second Appeal: 

Any person, aggrieved by the decision in the First Appeal, may file a Second Appeal within Six months of the decision of the Appellate Committee for First Appeal to the Committee constituted for this purpose as per provision contained in clause (I) (b) of Entitlement Rules for Casualty Pensionary Awards to the Armed Forces Personnel, 2008.

• War Injury Pension – 

The rates of War Injury Element for 100% disability for various rank shall be equal to the reckonable emoluments last drawn in case of invalided out and 60% of reckonable emoluments last drawn in case of discharge, which would be proportionately reduced where disability is less than 100%.

 Invalid Pension –

Invalid pension may be granted to the Service Personnel who is invalided out of service on account of disability which is accepted as Neither Attributable Nor Aggravated (NANA). Minimum qualifying service required for Invalid pension was 10 years. The requirement of minimum 10 years service has been done away with vide DESW letter dated 16.07.2020. The benefit of said letter will be available to those Armed Forces Personnel who were in service on or after 04.01.2019 and invalided out from service on account of any bodily or mental infirmity which is Neither Attributable to Nor Aggravated (NANA) by Military service and which permanently incapacitated/incapacitates them from military service as well as civil re-employment.

• • Reservist Pension –

 Granted on completion of the prescribed combined Colour+ Reserve service of not less than 15 years. It is 2/3rd of the minimum pension admissible to a Sepoy.

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Defence Pensioners and Disbursement Agencies

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There are more than 26 lakhs Armed Forces pensioners/family pensioners and approximately 55,000 pensioners are added every year. The pension is disbursed across the country through 

21 Public Sector Banks, 03 Private Sector Banks viz HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank, 

308 Treasuries (Active), 

64 Defence Pension Disbursing offices (DPDOs), 

01 Post Office, 

05 Pay Accounts Offices(PAOs)

 scattered all over India. For the Armed Forces Pensioners residing in Nepal disbursement of pension is done through 03 Pension Paying Offices (PPOs).  

At present the entire pension system of Defence personnels are administed through SPARSH.  Migration process is likely to be completed within a few months.

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Defence Pension Adalat

A large community of Ex-servicemen specially Personnel Below Officers Rank (PBOR) and their families are settled in the interiors and remote areas. Defence Pension Adalats provide a credible forum for redressal of grievances of the defence pensioners near to their place of residence/work. Since representatives of concerned organizations are present in the Adalat, it is possible to take appropriate decisions on the spot to the extent possible. The Adalat also disseminates latest information, about orders circulars, procedures, forms and formats. Since 1987, 175 pension Adalats have been held so far across the country. During the last three years, approximately 9075 grievances were received and 8997 were settled in the Pension Adalats.

Pension Grievances of Exservicemen

DESW receives on an average around 600 to 1000 representations in a month from Ex-Servicemen. These are examined by the concerned officials and referred to the concerned agencies for redressal with a copy to the individual so that he could know as to where his case has been referred. State Governments have also been requested to set up grievance redressal mechanisms for the ex-servicemen. Further, around 500-700 online grievances are also being received through pgportal.gov.in, an online grievance redressal mechanism, which are being processed electronically with the concerned organization/Service Hqrs who redress the grievance of the ex-servicemen and status of redressal is also updated in the portal. 

The petitioner can see the status of his/her grievance electronically by simply clicking their registration number in the  https://pgportal.gov.in/     

Now you can lodge your pensipon grievances through SPARSH Portal.