Comparing pension amount (Family Pension or NPS annuity) by Government Nodal Office before processing Family Pension cases on Death/disability of subscriber

This is with reference to Regulation 6 (e) of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (Exits and Withdrawal from National Pension System) Regulation 2015, providing for the treatment of additional benefits provided by the government like Family Pension.   In this regard, the Authority has provided guidelines for adjustment/transfer of· accumulated pension wealth in the subscribers’ account to the government nodal office in the event of the government providing an additional benefit in the nature of family pension to the family members/subscriber upon their request. However, in order to ensure that such claimants take an informed decision on availing such family pension vis-a-vis the benefits available to them under National Pension System (NPS), it has been decided that the concerned nodal office shall obtain from CRA registered under NPS the information about the likely monthly annuity amount with the accumulated pension wealth in the subscribers account and inform the claimants along with the family pension they are eligible to get.   This is to ensure that the claimants/ family members of the subscriber/subscriber takes an informed decision in the matter of availing the benefits available to him.The Authority is undertaking steps to provide for an annuity quote calculator on the website of CRA registered under NPS for facilitating the same and, in the interim, such nodal offices can write to CRA atnpsclaimassist@nsdl.co.in to provide the approximate pension per month that can be derived from the purchase of an annuity for the accumulated pension wealth in the subscribers account by  giving  the PRA  number  and  other  details.    Upon  receipt  of the information  from  CRA  the  nodal  office  can  guide  the claimants appropriately based  on  the annuity  available  under NPS and the monthly  pension that is available  under  the additional relief by way of family  pension being  offered  to them.
Regulation  6(e) is to be read in conjunction with Regulation  3  (b) and 3  (c) of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development  Authority   (Exits  and Withdrawal  from National Pension System) Regulation  201 Sand is applicable  only  if the concerned Central  or State  Government is offering such  additional relief  by way  of family pension  to  its employee.   It may also  be noted  that  the grant  of additional  relief  by way  of family  pension etc.,    is the sole prerogative   of the concerned Central  or State Government  entity and the Authority  has no role to play in this regard.The clarificatory  guidelines  for  removal  of difficulty  are being  issued  by the Authority  in exercise of its powers  under  Section  14 of the  Pension  Fund Regulatory and Development  Authority  Act, 2013  read  with  Regulation 39 of  the  PFRDA (Exits and Withdrawals from National Pension System) Regulations, 2015.

(Venkateswarlu Peri)

General Mana