Government Employees Pension Rules: The procedure for submission and acknowledgement of nominations for life-time arrears of pension is well defined in the Payment of Arrears of Pension (Nomination) Rules, 1983.
All retiring Government employees are mandatorily required to submit the nomination for arrears of pension in Form A while filling up the pension papers. This nomination is then forwarded to the Pension Disbursing Authority along with the PPO.
Pensioners who retired before the notification of the Payment of Arrears of Pension (Nomination) Rules, 1983 were required to submit nomination to the respective Pension Disbursing Authority.
Procedure for handling of nominations of pensioners
Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare in a note dated March 31, 2022 has asked all Ministries, Departments, Accounts Offices, CPAO and Pension Disbursing Authorities and Banks to follow procedure for handling of the nominations of the pensioners submitted under the Payment of Arrears of Pension (Nomination) Rules, 1983 by laying down the following:
Actions by Ministries/Departments and attached/subordinate offices
Action by the Accounts Officers
Action by the Central Pension Accounting Office
Actions by the Pension Disbursing Authority/Bank
Every employee who retired after the notification of the Rules, was required to submit the nomination, in triplicate, in Form A to the Head of Office or the Department from where the employee retired.
The Head of Office is required to return a duly attested duplicate copy of the nomination in Form “A” to the pensioner. The triplicate copy of the nomination is to be passed on to the Pension Disbursing Authority along with the Pension Payment Order, through the PAO/CPAO.
The pensioner can, subsequently, modify the nomination (if nominee predeceases the pensioner, or otherwise) by submitting Form “A” in triplicate to the Pension Disbursing Authority.
The Pension Disbursing Authority is required to return to the pensioner the duly attested duplicate copy of the nomination within thirty days of the receipt of nomination. The triplicate copy is to be sent to the Accounts Officer of the Department from where the pensioner had retired while the original copy of the nomination shall be recorded with the PDA.
If any arrears of pension accrue after the death of a pensioner, such arrears of pension are paid to the person in whose favour a nomination under the Payment of Arrears of Pension (Nomination) Rules, 1983 exists.
Pensioners Grievances
Representations have been received by Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare from some pensioners/pensioners’ associations that, quite often, when pensioners submit their nominations to the Pension Disbursing Authority (PDA), there is reluctance on the part of the bank staff to accept these nominations as they are not quite conversant with the rules.
Further, in case a nomination is accepted by the bank, the pensioner is not aware of its safe custody and its retrieval when needed because he is not sure whether the nomination has been fed into the system of the Bank.
In most cases, the problem of non-availability of nomination may be due to improper handling of the nominations by the Banks, as the Banks may not be keeping a proper record of the nominations.
The problem may also arise if the nomination submitted at the time of retirement becomes invalid on account of the nominee predeceasing the pensioner or for some other reason and the pensioner fails to submit a fresh nomination to the Bank in Form A or the staff in the Bank Branches does not accept the nomination due to ignorance.