TN ups pensioners’ contributory share to family fund scheme

TN ups pensioners’ contributory share to family fund scheme

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

Chennai:13.07.2021 

The state finance department has increased pensioners' contribution to the Family Security Fund Scheme and has sanctioned ₹25 crore to clear pending settlements.

According to the scheme guidelines, pensioners make a monthly contribution till the date of death and in return, family members get ₹50,000 on the death of the pensioner.

When the scheme was launched in 1996, each pensioner contributed ₹20 and ₹25,000 was paid on their death. The contribution and settlement amount was increased at regular time intervals to run the scheme.

But in August 2020, the state government stopped paying the settlements to family members of deceased pensioners, citing fund crunch as the reason.

The Director of Pension, the state agency implementing the scheme, said that on an average they received around 15,500 claims every year and they required ₹77.50 crore to settle these claims. But the annual receipt from pensioners is around ₹43 crore. This indicates that annual deficit of accural to the fund is about ₹35 crore.

As of May 2021, there are about 13,746 pending claims for settlement and the director requested the government to sanction ₹57 crore to settle these claims.

Considering the fact that it is an optional and self-supporting scheme, the state finance department on July 7 issued orders increasing the pensioners' monthly contribution from ₹80 to ₹150.

In addition to this, the state has sanctioned ₹25 crore to settle these backlog claims. This amount has been sanctioned as an advance from the government account to the sheme recoverable over 5 years period without interest.

Welcoming this, SA Vetrirajan, a retired commercial taxes officer, said that the previous government left the scheme in the lurch. "Though it is a small amout, it becomes handy for the bereaved family members to settle hospital bills or to take care of the cremation expenses," he said.

Ramasamy from Tamil Nadu Pensioners' Association said that present state government employees also pay the same contribution (₹150 per month) but they get ₹3 lakh as settlement. "The government should at least provide half of this amount for pensioners," he said.

The association has decided to take this request to the government after their state executive committee meeting in Trichy next month. There are seven lakh pensioners in the state and roughly 96,000 among them reside in Chennai.