New simplified pension application form released for central govt employees

Union minister Jitendra Singh on Friday launched a new simplified pension application form for retiring central government employees.

A total of nine different forms have been merged into one form -- Form 6A -- that was launched by the minister through video-conference.

Singh said the launch of the simplified form is yet another step by the government to ensure ease of living for citizens and pensioners.

The new form will be available in Bhavishya/e-HRMS (portals) for all central government employees who are going to retire in December 2024 and onwards.

Bhavishya is an initiative of Department of Pension & Pensioners' Welfare, which is launched with the goal to ensure payment of all retirement dues and delivery of Pension Payment Order (PPO) to retiring employees on the day of retirement itself.

The system provides online tracking of pension sanction and payment process by the individual as well as the administrative authorities for all actions preparatory to grant pension and other retirement benefits as well as payment of monthly pension after retirement. The system also allows individuals to download ePPO.

eHRMS is referred to as the electronic Human Resource Management System which has details including service records of government employees.

Form simplification has been an important initiative of the Centre's "maximum governance-minimum government" policy.

This new form and related changes in the business process of Bhavishya will be a game changer as on the one hand it simplifies the pension form submission for the employee through "a single sign only" and on the other hand achieves the end-to-end digitisation of the entire process of pension processing till the start of pension payment after retirement, according to an official statement.

"This paves the path towards paperless working in the whole process of pension," it said.