On 19th September the Central Government amended the rules of family pension for central government employees, ensuring enhanced pension for families of employees who die before completion of seven years of service. This amendment will benefit the families of those central government employees who die with 7 years of joining job, especially the widows of central armed forces personnel.
According to the rule 54, sub-rule 2, clause (iii) of the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972, when a government employee dies, the family of the deceased is entitled to family pension at a uniform rate of 30% of the basic pay.
But the sub-rule 3 had provided for enhanced pension at the rate of 50%, if the employee dies after completing seven years of service. Now with a notification issued in the Gazette of India by the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, this sub rule 3 has been amended and the requirement of completing seven years of service has been omitted for granting family pension at the enhanced rate of 50%.
The new rule will be applicable from 1st October 2019. This rule will also apply for cases where a government employee died without completing seven years of services within ten years prior to 1st October.
The government has also specified that for all cases where a family of a deceased employee becomes eligible for family mention, the amount of family pension and the period for which it is payable will be determined within one month from the receipt of intimation of the date of death. This will ensure faster processing of family pension.
The government has also modified the rules of gratuity payable on the death of employees. It says, “If the entire service rendered by the deceased Government servant is not capable of being verified and accepted, the amount of death gratuity shall be provisionally determined in accordance with clause (b) of sub-rule (1) of rule 50 on the basis of the length of qualifying service which is verified and accepted immediately preceding the date of death of the Government servant and the amount of death gratuity, so determined shall be authorised to the beneficiaries on provisional basis within one month from the date of receipt of intimation of date of death of the Government servant.”
The amendment also specifies that the final amount of death gratuity will be determined by the Head of Office on the acceptance and verification of the entire spell of service by him within a period of six months from the date on which the authority for the payment of provisional death gratuity was issued and the balance, if any, becoming payable as a result of determination of the final amount of death gratuity shall then be authorised to the beneficiaries.”
