Summary of this article
Delhi government to initiate surprise visits to verify social welfare pension beneficiaries.
Three random home visits to confirm existence and eligibility of recipients.
Absentees during the visits risk removal from the pension list.
The Delhi government has decided to conduct three surprise visits to the beneficiaries of the old-age pension and other government schemes in Delhi. The state government has engaged an agency to visit pensioners' homes, collect their documents, and verify that they are genuine beneficiaries. In May this year, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta directed the officials to survey government schemes' beneficiaries through a door-to-door survey. Now, the initiative of surprise three visits came in response to the complaints about irregularities in the pension disbursal process. The idea is to ensure that the government benefits reach the intended recipients.
The professional agency was tasked with the responsibility of conducting three random surprise visits to the old age pension and other schemes' beneficiaries' homes to verify the details and find out if there were any fake beneficiaries. These visits will involve collecting copies of relevant documents of beneficiaries and capturing their photographs using a tablet to confirm their existence and eligibility, per the Zee News report. Those who will be found absent from their homes during the separate three visits could be removed from the beneficiary list. If the beneficiaries remain unavailable at the third visit, their pension will be discontinued.
Delhi's welfare programs include not only old age pensioners but also other financial support schemes such as pension for widows and persons with disabilities. Reportedly, there are around 4 lakh old-age pension beneficiaries in the state.
The verification initiative is to ensure benefits to genuinely needy people and the removal of cases where pensioners are living outside Delhi and fraudulently receiving benefits, or don't fulfill other eligibility criteria. Read here to know the eligibility.
Besides the three visit initiatives, the government also plans to hold verification camps where beneficiaries' documents will be thoroughly scrutinised. This will help filter out the fake beneficiaries, as initially the pensions were disbursed based on the initial documentation. However, the camps, which, per the report, are expected to start from next month, to update the records. In the process, the pensions cancelled during verification will be reassigned to the new and eligible applicants.
To provide financial security to eligible older adults, States and Union Territories offer a pension, which differs from one state to another. For example, the Delhi government offers Rs 2,500 per month to the eligible elderly. A person aged 60 years and above, resident of Delhi for at least five years before applying to the old age pension, and whose annual family income, including rent, property sale, savings, and investments, etc., is less than Rs 1 lakh, is eligible to apply. Such individuals must have an Aadhaar number and a savings bank account, singly operated, so that the pension can be directly transferred to their bank account.
By implementing changes in the verification process, the government aims to bring transparency to social welfare programs.
