Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said that a total of 23 lakh government employees will benefit from the UPS scheme. If the state government also implements this scheme, then the number of beneficiary employees will increase to 90 lakh.

The central government has decided to replace the New Pension Scheme (NPS) with the Unified Pension Scheme. The government says that UPS i.e. Unified Pension Scheme will be implemented from April 1 next year. The implementation of this new scheme will benefit 23 lakh central employees. However, the government has also made it clear that employees will have the option to choose any one scheme from UPS and NPS. Let us tell you in detail today what is UPS, NPS and OPS, and how much will the employees benefit from these schemes?

23 lakh employees will benefit from UPS scheme

First of all, if we talk about the Unified Pension Scheme, then recently Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said about this scheme that 23 lakh central employees will benefit from this. He also said that if the state governments also join this scheme, then the number of beneficiaries will increase to 90 lakh. The special thing about UPS is that under this, arrears will be given to the employees who retired from the year 2004. Let us tell you that it was the year 2004 when the government of that time implemented the new pension scheme in place of the old pension scheme. Now the current government has made UPS more beneficial than these schemes. 

It is being told that under this scheme, employees will get an assured pension. As an assured pension, employees will get 50% of the average basic salary of 12 months. That is, under this scheme, there is a plan to give 50% of the average basic salary of the first 12 months as pension before the retirement of the government employee. To get this benefit, it is necessary that the employee works for at least 25 years. If an employee’s job is less than 25 years and more than 10 years, then he will get proportionately less pension benefits.

On death, the wife or husband will get 60 percent payment

Under the UPS scheme, after the death of a retired employee, his family i.e. wife or husband will be given 60 percent of the total pension under family pension. The amount of pension to be given will be decided according to the pension that would be due to the working employee at the time of his death. 

You will get a pension of 10 thousand rupees after working for 10 years

Under the UPS scheme, the central government has also made provision for minimum pension for central employees. Under the new scheme for central employees, there is a provision of getting a pension of Rs 10,000 per month after working for 10 years. At the same time, the government will give DR instead of DA and the DR of pension will be evaluated on the basis of consumer price index. 

After all, what is New Pension Scheme (NPS)

If we talk about the New Pension Scheme, then there is no guarantee of a fixed pension. Under the New Pension Scheme, 10 percent of the basic salary and DA of the employees is deducted. This scheme is also based on the performance of the stock market. This is the reason why this scheme is not considered very safe. On the other hand, if we talk about pension, after retirement, if someone wants a pension, then he has to invest 40 percent of his NPS fund. Under this scheme, there is also no provision for giving DA and dearness allowance after six months. Many employee organizations have already expressed their dissatisfaction regarding this scheme. They say that the government contributes 10 percent of the basic salary from its side. 

Employees with NPS will also be able to join the UPS scheme 

It is being told that the employees who have already accepted the new pension scheme can also join the UPS scheme. But these employees will get the decision to switch from one scheme to another only once. They will not be able to do so after once. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said that the employees who retire after the end of the old pension scheme will also get the benefit. 

What was the old pension scheme i.e. OPS 

Comparison of UPS and NPS Scheme If we talk about the old pension scheme, then under this, half of the salary of the government employees is given as pension at the time of retirement. Whereas during that time not a single penny was deducted from the salary of the employee for pension. Also, if we talk about the amount of gratuity given to the employees, then it was Rs 20 lakh at that time. If a retired employee dies, then in that case the pension amount was given to his family. Also, there is a provision of General Provident Fund in the old pension scheme. Also, there was a provision of dearness allowance i.e. DA to be received after six months.  

~Navneet Shukla