Reexamination of cases of pension on higher wages of employees who had retired upto 1st September 2014 without exercising any option
Contents News/Article Date: 25th January 2023
Relating to which Act: The Employees Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952
Applicable to which State: All the establishments in the States with PF coverage
Type: Current – EPFO HO Circular No. Pension / 2022 / 55893 / 15785 issued by Regional PF Commissioner I – Pension
Earlier – Newspaper reports and the audited annual accounts for FY21 show contributions to the scheme’s pension fund dropped
Earlier – EPFO Head Office, Ministry of Labour & Employment, Government of India, Circular No. Pension/2022/54877/15149 issued by Additional Central PF Commissioner (Pension)
Pertains to: employers and employees
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In the previous instance, the Additional Central PF commissioner (Pension) has taken action to implement the directions contained in para 44 (ix) of the judgment dated 4/11/2022 of the Hon’ble Supreme Court within the stipulated timelines.
This means that –
- The employees who had retired prior to 1st September 2014 without exercising any option, will not be entitled.
- The employees who had retired prior to 1st September 2014 and exercised the option, will be entitled
- In the matter of the Division Bench in the case of R C Gupta (Supra), the fund authorities will implement the directives within a period of 8 weeks
- The following may apply online at epfindia for validating their options – (a) pensioners contributing on salary exceeding the prevalent wage ceiling of 5000/- or 6500/- and (b) exercised joint option under the proviso to para 11(3) of the pre-amendment scheme while being members of EPS 95 and the option of which was declined by PF authorities.
- Application forms for the above, the facility of which will be announced shortly, will be required to be carried out in the prescribed manner.
In the last instance –
A dip in Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS) contributions has triggered concerns about the retirement programme’s sustainability and its ability to meet pension payments.
The audited annual accounts for FY21 show contributions to the scheme’s pension fund dropped 2.7% to ₹50,562 crores from ₹51,953 crores in FY20.
In the last latest instance – EPFO HO says in order to stop payment if any in respect of employees who had retired prior to 1st September 2014 without exercising any option under para 11 (3) of the pre-amended scheme and have been granted a pension on higher wages, their case needs to be re-examined to ensure that they are not given higher pension from the month of January 2023 onwards. Pension in such cases may be immediately restored to pension on wages up to the ceiling of Rs. 5000/- or Rs. 6500/-
Subject: Reexamination of cases of pension on higher wages of employees who had retired upto 1st September 2014 without exercising any option
For greater details, attached is the notification