Atal Pension Yojana (APY)

A Pension provides a monthly income to the people during their unproductive years.

Need for Pension:

• Decreased income earning potential with age.
• The rise of nuclear Family
• Migration of earning members.
• Rise in cost of living.
• Increased longevity.
• Dignified life in the old age due to less financial dependence.

Atal Pension Yojana (APY), a pension scheme launched by Government of India isfocused on the unorganized sector workers. Under the APY, minimum guaranteed pension of INR 1,000 or 2,000 or 3,000 or 4,000 or 5,000 per month will start after attaining the age of 60 years depending on the contributions by the subscribers for their chosen pension amount

Any Citizen of India can join APY scheme. The following are the eligibility criteria: -

• The age of the subscriber should be between 18 and 40 years.
• He / She should have a savings bank account/ post office savings bank account The prospective applicants may provide mobile number to the bank during their Enrolments under APY to receive periodic updates on their APY account as well as on APY scheme. Aadhaar may also be provided at the time of enrolment as APY scheme is notified for the same.

• YES, any Indian citizen within the age group of 18 - 40 years, can join APY Scheme irrespective of his/her employment status with Govt./Public Sector, for availing benefits guaranteed by Government of India under the scheme.
• Further, an existing NPS subscriber can also subscribe to APY, if he/she meets the basic eligibility criteria, for availing benefits guaranteed by Government of India; under the scheme.

The benefit of minimum pension under Atal Pension Yojana would be guaranteed by the Government in the sense that if the actual realized returns on the pension contributions are Copyright RBL Bank Ltd. less than the assumed returns for minimum guaranteed pension, over the period of contribution, such shortfall shall be funded by the Government. On the other hand, if the actual returns on the pension contributions are higher than the assumed returns for minimum guaranteed pension, over the period of contribution, such enhanced scheme benefits shall be passed on to the subscribers.

The Government of India had co-contributed 50% of the total contribution or INR 1,000 per annum, whichever is lower, to each eligible subscriber, who joined the scheme during the period June 01, 2015 to March 31, 2016 and who is not a beneficiary of any social security scheme and is not an income tax payer. The Government co-contribution will be given for 5 years from the Financial Year 2015-16 to the Financial Year 2019-20.

Approach the bank branch/ post office where individual’s savings bank account is held or open a savings account if the subscriber doesn’t have one.

Atal Pension Yojana (APY) has now been included under the Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act. As per the provisions of the Act, any individual who is eligible to receive such benefits under the APY will have to furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number or undergo enrolment under Aadhaar authentication. Hence, it is desirable to provide Aadhaar Number for proper identification of the subscriber

No, the savings bank account/ post office savings bank account is mandatory for joining APY.

Yes. It is mandatory to provide nominee details in APY account.

If the subscriber is Unmarried they can nominate any other person as nominee and they have to provide spouse details after marriage. If married, the spouse will be the default nominee. The Aadhaar details of spouse and nominees may be provided.

A subscriber can open only one APY account. Multiple APY accounts are not permitted.

No. A minor cannot open an APY account.

No, currently a person who is in age group of 18 years to 39 years 364 days can join Atal Pension Yojana.

Yes, NRI in the age group 18-40 years of age having a bank account with APY POP is eligible to open APY account.

The scheme is open to the Indian citizens only. Hence, in that event the APY account will be closed and the net actual interest earned on his contributions (after deducting the account maintenance charges) will be refunded, whereas, the Government co-contribution, and the interest earned on the Government co-contribution,shall not be returned to such subscribers.

The contribution amount shall depend on the age of the subscriber at the time of opening of APY account, frequency of contribution and the pension slab chosen. The age wise, frequency wise and pension slab wise contribution table is provided as Annexure for reference.

The contributions can be made at monthly / quarterly / half yearly intervals through auto debit facility from savings bank account/ post office savings bank account of the subscriber.

APY contributions will be collected through auto-debit of their savings bank account/ post office savings bank account on any date of the particular month, in case of monthly contributions or any day of the first month of the quarter, in case of quarterly contributions or any day of the first month of the half year, in case of half-yearly contributions.

Subscriber will be charged overdue interest for the delayed period in case the APY contribution gets delayed beyond the due date.

Banks are required to collect INR 1 per month for contribution of every INR 100, or part thereof, for each delayed monthly contributions. The overdue interest amount collected will remain as part of the pension corpus of the subscriber. More than one monthly / quarterly / half yearly contribution can be recovered subject to availability of the funds.

In case of inadequate balance in the saving account of the subscriber till the last date of the month / last date of the first month in a quarter / last day of the first month in a half year, as the case may be, it will be treated as a default and contribution will have to be paid in the subsequent month along with overdue interest for delayed contributions. More than one monthly / quarterly / half yearly contribution can be recovered subject to availability of the funds.

Deduction would continue to be made in the subscriber’s APY account for account maintenance charges and other related charges on a periodic basis till it becomes zero.

The contributions under APY are invested as per the investment guidelines prescribed by PFRDA for Central Government / State Government / NPS-Lite / Swavalamban Scheme / APY. The contributions thus collected are invested and the funds are managed by namely SBI Pension Fund Pvt. Ltd, LIC Pension Fund Ltd, UTI Retirement Solution Ltd.

The subscribers will submit the request to the associated bank/Post office for drawing the guaranteed minimum monthly pension or higher monthly pension, if investment returns are higher than the guaranteed returns embedded in APY. Upon successful submission of the request, the subscriber receives monthly pension depending on the contributions by the subscriber. The same amount of monthly pension is payable to spouse (default nominee) upon death of subscriber. Nominee will be eligible for return of pension wealth accumulated till age 60 years of the subscriber, upon death of both the subscriber andspouse.

Yes, Voluntary exit under APY before 60 years of age is permitted. The subscriber shall only be refunded the contributions made by him to APY along with the net actual accrued income earned on his contributions (after deducting the account maintenance charges).

However, in case of subscribers who joined the scheme before March 31, 2016 and received Government Co-Contribution shall not receive the Government co-contribution and the accrued income earned on the same, if opted for Voluntary exit before 60 years.

• Option 1: In case of death of the subscriber before 60 years, option will be available to the spouse of the subscriber to continue contribution in the APY account of the subscriber, which can be maintained in the spouse’s name, for the remaining vesting period, till the original subscriber would have attained the age of 60 years. The spouse of the subscriber shall be entitled to receive the same pension amount as the subscriber until death of the spouse. Such APY account and pension amount would be in addition to even if the spouse has his/her APY account and pension amount in own name.
• Option 2: The entire accumulated corpus till date under APY will be returned to the spouse / nominee.

The subscriber shall receive the following three benefits on attaining the age of 60:

• Guaranteed minimum pension amount: Each subscriber under APY shall receive a Government of India guaranteed minimum pension of INR 1,000 per month or INR 2,000 per month or INR 3,000 per month or INR 4,000 per month or INR 5,000 per month, after the age of 60 years until death.
• Guaranteed minimum pension amount to the spouse: After the subscriber’s demise, the spouse of the subscriber shall be entitled to receive the same pension amount as that of the subscriber,until the death of the spouse.
• Return of the pension wealth to the nominee of the subscriber: After the demise of both the subscriber and the spouse, the nominee of the subscriber shall be entitled to receive the pension wealth, as accumulated till age 60 years of the subscriber.