Electronic pension payment order promises ease of living for senior citizens: Jitendra Singh

The recently introduced Electronic “Pension Payment Order" (PPO) promises ease of living for senior citizens, Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, has said.

Referring to some of the significant reforms introduced in the Ministry of Personnel, Singh lauded officials’ efforts in the Department of Pensions. They had successfully introduced the provision of Electronic "Pension Payment Order" during the height of Covid pandemic.

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Now, Central government pensioners can access their PPO status digitally

This has come as a boon to several of the retiring officials. There were getting superannuated during the lockdown period and found it challenging to physically receive the hard copy of their PPO. Significantly, the entire process was accomplished much before the targeted timeline given the difficulties being faced by the pensioners due to the pandemic, Singh noted.

Accordingly, the Department of Pensions and Pensioners' Welfare decided to integrate the electronic PPO generated through PFMS application of CGA (Controller General of Accounts) with Digi-locker. This enables the pensioner to obtain an instant print - out of the latest copy of his PPO from the Digi-locker account.

Singh said that the Department of Pensions in the Ministry of Personnel was often at the receiving end of complaints from senior citizens about the original copies of their Pension Payment Order getting misplaced. In such situations, the pensioners, particularly the older pensioners, had to face several hardships.

He said that there had been rapid progress in the digitalisation direction in the last six years, and many of the Ministries and Departments in the Government of India were performing nearly 80 per cent of their work through e-office even before the onset of Covid pandemic.