Summary of this article
DoPPW issues guidelines to streamline pension payment process. It introduces Pension Mitras to support retirees in completing exit formalities, and focuses on make the process digital for better monitoring and transparency
The Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare (DoPPW) has issued comprehensive guidelines to streamline the payment of pension and make the process easier for retirees. The new guidelines are focused on ensuring the timely issuance of Pension Payment Orders (PPOs) and electronic PPOs (ePPOs) to central civil services employees, along with disbursal of pension and other retirement benefits to the pensioners.
“The major thrust areas identified for systemic improvement are digitisation of service records, universalisation of Bhavishya, appointment of High Level Oversight Committee (HLOC) in DoPPW and line Ministries, and handholding of pensioners through introduction of Pension Mitras/Welfare Officers in all the departments”, reads DoPPW’s office memorandum dated September 29, 2025.
Here are the key provisions of the new guidelines.
Mandatory Timelines
A focus area of the new guidelines is to follow strict timelines in issuing PPOs and paying the pension. While rule 63(1) (a) of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021, mandated PPOs or ePPOs to be issued within two months from the date of an employee’s superannuation, employees still faced delays.
The latest memorandum mandates the Pay & Accounts Office (PAO) to check pension and gratuity amounts two months before retirement and forward the PPO or ePPO details to the Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO) by the last date of the preceding month of retirement. Accordingly, the pension should be credited to a retiree’s account by the last date of the month of retirement.
Digital Adoption
This mandates ministries and departments to digitise employees’ records in a time-bound manner and become 100 per cent digital with all details uploaded on e-HRMS. It suggests discouraging the use of manual maintenance of service records (SRs), and adopting the Bhavishya Portal, a government portal where pensioners can track their pension application.
Eliminating Delays
Identifying that the common reason for delay in the process is the verification of qualifying service and vigilance clearance, the memorandum requires the ministries and departments to issue the vigilance clearance within three months prior to the date of retirement. In case of any pending judicial proceedings, the department has to issue a provisional pension and the withheld gratuity until the final order in the matter is passed.
Pension Mitra
To further streamline the verification process of qualifying service, DoPPW has also introduced the Pension Mitras or Welfare Officers, similar to a practice followed in the Ministry of Railways. The Heads of Offices (HOO) have been given the responsibility to depute these officers (Pension Mitras) to help retirees complete their paperwork and other formalities, as well as family pensioners.
High-Level Oversight Committee
To ensure that these rules are adhered to properly, an oversight monitoring mechanism (OSM) is to be set up at two levels: within DoPPW and in each ministry and the department. It will review the pendency of pension cases on a bi-monthly basis, issue monthly reports based on Bhavishya Portal data, and monitor the ministries’ performance on the portal’s parameters. It will also recommend systemic and technological improvements.
Bhavishya Portal was made mandatory for all central civil Ministries and Departments effective January 01, 2017. As of September 29, 2025, a total of 293,644 PPOs have been issued through the portal.
