 "EPFO to launch digital life certificates for pensioners")
To make life easier for the senior citizens, Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has decided to follow the footsteps of Prime Minister Narendra Modi by mooting a digital life certificate to its 4.7 million pensioners.
The EPFO has already started testing the digital life certificate system at two of its centres - Delhi and Chandigarh. After verifying the system, the EPFO will launch the facility nationwide.
“The decision was taken at a meeting held recently between EPFO and the National Informatics Centre (NIC) officials where it was felt that old-age citizens face a lot of hardships to give a physical proof of being alive,” said an EPFO official.
The idea is to replicate the digital life certificate programme launched by Modi last month. This will allow EPFO pensioners to give a digital certificate through mobile phones instead of submitting a physical application by coming to bank every year, the official added.
Once the new system is in place, pensioners can submit biometric applications through a mobile phone application by providing their pension payment order, Aadhaar number, bank account and mobile number to the EPFO to register for the facility. The mobile application will be developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC). However, pensioners will have to visit their nearby NIC centres or banks to give fingerprints, said a senior EPFO official. At present, pensioners under the Employees Pension Scheme 1995 have to visit their respective banks in November every year and get a certificate from the bank manager authenticating the pensioner was alive to receive the sum. Only after doing so, is the entitled amount credited to the pensioner's bank account every month.
The two regional offices cited above have been asked to prepare a report on the pilot project and submit it by January 26, a senior official told news agency Press Trust of India. According to the news agency, the EPFO has started the process of registering pensioners for the purpose at Delhi and Chandigarh on December 26.
Last month, Modi had launched Jeevan Pramaan - an Aadhaar-enabled digital life certificate for government employees.
The EPFO has already started testing the digital life certificate system at two of its centres - Delhi and Chandigarh. After verifying the system, the EPFO will launch the facility nationwide.
“The decision was taken at a meeting held recently between EPFO and the National Informatics Centre (NIC) officials where it was felt that old-age citizens face a lot of hardships to give a physical proof of being alive,” said an EPFO official.
The idea is to replicate the digital life certificate programme launched by Modi last month. This will allow EPFO pensioners to give a digital certificate through mobile phones instead of submitting a physical application by coming to bank every year, the official added.
Once the new system is in place, pensioners can submit biometric applications through a mobile phone application by providing their pension payment order, Aadhaar number, bank account and mobile number to the EPFO to register for the facility. The mobile application will be developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC). However, pensioners will have to visit their nearby NIC centres or banks to give fingerprints, said a senior EPFO official. At present, pensioners under the Employees Pension Scheme 1995 have to visit their respective banks in November every year and get a certificate from the bank manager authenticating the pensioner was alive to receive the sum. Only after doing so, is the entitled amount credited to the pensioner's bank account every month.
The two regional offices cited above have been asked to prepare a report on the pilot project and submit it by January 26, a senior official told news agency Press Trust of India. According to the news agency, the EPFO has started the process of registering pensioners for the purpose at Delhi and Chandigarh on December 26.
Last month, Modi had launched Jeevan Pramaan - an Aadhaar-enabled digital life certificate for government employees.
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