Delhi Faces Backlog Of 80,000 Pension Applications From Senior Citizens, Govt Orders Quick Clearance

The senior citizens in Delhi who applied for old-age pensions in December 2024 will soon start receiving their pensions. The Social Welfare Minister of Delhi, Ravindra Indraj Singh, has instructed the department to process all pending applications for monthly pensions. According to a report by the Times of India, around 80,000 applications are pending with the department with the department. In Delhi, seniors aged 60 years and older can receive a monthly pension of Rs 2,000 in Delhi under the old-age pension scheme. Those aged 70 years and above who qualify for the scheme can receive a monthly pension of Rs 2,500 from the government.

Recently, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta directed the concerned officials to conduct a survey to identify genuine cases for old age pensions and to filter out those who do not meet the eligibility criteria. The social welfare department has been tasked with carrying out a door-to-door survey to verify the details of the beneficiaries.

Now, Singh asked the department to clear the pending applications for old-age monthly pensions within 15 days. Reportedly, the minister asked the department to verify eligibility details by conducting a door-to-door survey, which stands at around six lakh beneficiaries existing at present.

The department invited applications from eligible older adults last year in December 2024. The scheme had around 4.3 beneficiaries registered under the scheme, which is much lower than the cap on the number of beneficiaries, which is 5.3 lakh. However, the online portal to register under the scheme was closed after receiving 80,000 applications.

It has been five months since the applications were submitted, but verification is still pending. To ensure that the beneficiaries are genuine, there was a mandatory requirement to submit a recommendation from an area legislator at the time of submitting the application.

To speed up the process, the minister has now set the timeline as 15 days.

As per the report, the department has appointed an agency to verify the beneficiaries and pays Rs 100 for each beneficiary’s verification. The verification agency is required to follow a set procedure and if the applicant is not present at home, visit the place two more times before a final report is submitted.

However, a mobile application that is planned to be integrated with the e-district portal may be developed in the future. It will help to easily collect and verify the data. 

A person has to be 60 years or older to be eligible for the scheme. Other parameters to verify eligibility include residency (the person should have been a resident of Delhi for at least the last five years), and family income (it should be less than Rs 1 lakh per annum).