Come November, and once again State and Central govt pensioners will be put through a lot of inconvenience to submit their Life Certificate to the pension authorities by the month end, or face the consequences. This also includes EPS- 95 pensioners who draw a pension hardly worth its name and purpose. It is important to mention that the EPS-95 pension scheme is a social security sheme by the EPFO for member employees with a minimum of 10 years service to receive pension after retirement at 58. Presently there are over 45 lakh pensioners of the scheme subsisting on a shoe string pension of Rs 1,000 per month. The starting pension in 1995 was a meagre Rs 230 pm and it was only after 19 years that pensions were raised to a minimum of Rs 1,000 pm in 2014. From then onwards, there has been no increase whatsoever, and no dearness allowance. It is prudent to state that a pension of Rs 1,000 pm translates to a paltry Rs 33.33 per day , which puts EPS pensioners in the category of persons living below the poverty line.
