FAQ - Pension Payment and Jeevan Pramaan

Yes. As decided by the Central Government (Civil and Defence), pension paying banks have been advised to issue pension slips to the pensioners in prescribed form when the pension is paid for the first time and thereafter whenever there is a change in quantum of pension due to revision in basic pension or revision in Dearness Relief.

In such cases, a pensioner can put any mark or impression on the cheque / withdrawal form and may indicate to the bank as to who would withdraw pension amount from the bank on the basis of cheque / withdrawal form. Such a person should be identified by two independent witnesses. The person who is actually drawing the money from the bank should be asked to furnish his / her specimen signature to the bank.

Yes, the banks should not insist on opening of a new account in case of Central Government pensioner if the spouse in whose favour an authorization for family pension exists in the Pension Payment Order (PPO) is the survivor and the family pension should be credited to the existing account without opening a new account by the family pensioner for this purpose.

Yes. The pension paying branch is required to maintain a detailed record of pension payments made by it from time to time in the prescribed form duly authenticated by the authorized officer.

A Central Civil & Defence pensioner can initially approach the concerned Branch Manager and follow the below escalation matrix if the query remain unresolved.
Branch ? Customer Care ?Grievance Redressal?Principal Nodal Officer
They can also approach the Banking Ombudsman of the concerned State in terms of Banking Ombudsman Scheme 2006 of the Reserve Bank of India (details available at the Bank's website https://www.rbi.org.in/) This is applicable only in respect of complaints relating to services rendered by banks and not resolved through the above escalation matrix. For other issues, the complainant will have to approach the respective pension sanctioning authority.

For any grievance please contact the below:

Email Id for Pension Related Queries -

Pensionhelpdesk@hdfc.bank.in

Contact Details for Pension Related Queries -
Concerned Person - Ms. Geeta Singh / Shailesh Shah

0120 - 489 4259 / 0120 - 616 8259

Also, pensioner can escalate the query at our bank's Toll Free Number - 1800 419 0081

Nodal Officer

Deepak Parashar
(Sr. Vice President)
Tel. 0120 - 6168104​​​​​​​

The account is not allowed to be operated by a holder of Power of Attorney. However, the cheque book facility and acceptance of standing instructions for transfer of funds from the account is permissible.

The concerned pension sanctioning authorities in the Ministries / Departments forward the PPOs to bank branches wherefrom the pensioner desires to draw his / her pension. However, on implementation of CPPCs, pension sanctioning authorities have gradually started sending PPOs to the CPPC of the bank instead of bank branch.

Yes. Before the commencement of pension, a pensioner has to be present at the paying branch for the purpose of identification. The paying branch shall obtain the specimen signatures or the thumb / toe impression from the pensioner.

Pension will be paid for three months on the basis of the photocopy of the pensioner's PPO at the transferee (new) branch from the date of the last payment made at the transferor (old) branch. Both the branches (old and new) are required to ensure that all the required documents are received by the transferee branch within these three months.

RBI has not stipulated any minimum balance to be maintained in pension accounts by the pensioners. Individual banks have framed their own rules in this regard. HDFC Bank offer a zero balance Pension account, however a pensioner can receive his pension in his / her existing saving bank account with the bank and he/she needs to maintain the minimum balance as required for the same.

The Ministry / Department / Office where the Government servant last served is the pension sanctioning authority. The pension fixation is made by such authority for the first time and thereafter the refixation of pay, if any, is done by the pension paying bank based on the instructions from the concerned Central Government authority.

Whenever any additional relief on pension / family pension is sanctioned by the Government, the same is intimated to the agency banks for issuing suitable instructions to their pension paying branches for payment of relief at the revised rates to the pensioners without any delay.

The pensioner can visit the Official Website of the concerned Government Department to get the information about pension related issues.

For more details, please refer RBI website

These FAQs are issued by HDFC Bank for information and general guidance purposes only. HDFC Bank will not be held responsible for actions taken and / or decisions made on the basis of the same. For clarifications or interpretations, if any, readers are requested to be guided by the relevant circulars and notifications issued from time to time by the Reserve Bank, Government, Pension Authorities or any other relevant agencies.

Yes. The pensioner is required to furnish a Life Certificate / Non - Employment Certificate or Employment Certificate to the bank in the prescribed format in the month of November every year to ensure continued receipt of pension without interruption. The pensioner can also present himself / herself at any branch of the pension paying bank for being identified for issue of life certificate. In case a pensioner is unable to obtain a Life Certificate on account of serious illness / incapacitation, bank official will visit his / her residence / hospital for the purpose of obtaining the life certificate.
A pensioner having Aadhar number can alternatively submit Jeevan Pramaan, a digital life certificate introduced by the Government of India. For obtaining this, he / she will have to enrol and biometrically authenticate himself / herself by downloading the application generating digital life certificate from the website Jeevanpramaan.gov.in or other means described on the website. Once digital life certificates in the form of Jeevan Pramaan are fully implemented, pension paying branches will be able to obtain information about the digital life certificate of their pensioner customers by logging on to the website of Jeevan Pramaan and searching for the certificate or by downloading through their Core Banking Systems. Pensioners will also be able to forward to their bank branches by email / sms the relative link to their digital life certificate.

(a) Pensioner can transfer his / her pension account from one branch to another branch of the same bank within the same centre or at a different centre; (b) He / She can transfer his / her account from one authorized bank to another within the same centre (such transfers to be allowed only once in a year); (c) He / She can also transfer his / her account from one authorized bank to another authorized bank at a different centre.

The family pension commences after the death of the pensioner. The family pension is payable to the person indicated in the PPO on receipt of a death certificate and application from the nominee.

Yes. The pensioner has right to retain half portion of the PPO for record and whenever there is a revision in the basic pension / Dearness Relief (DR), etc. the paying branch has to call for the pensioner's half of the PPO and record thereon the changes according to government orders / notifications and return the same to the pensioner.

The pensioner is not required to open a separate pension account. The pension can be credited to his / her existing savings / current account maintained with the branch selected by the pensioner.

The pension paying bank is responsible for deduction of Income Tax from pension amount in accordance with the rates prescribed by the Income Tax authorities from time to time. While deducting such tax from the pension amount, the paying bank will also allow deductions on account of relief to the pensioner available under the Income Tax Act. The paying branch, each year, will also issue to the pensioner a certificate of tax deduction as per the prescribed form.

If the pensioner is physically handicapped / incapacitated and unable to be present at the branch, the requirement of personal appearance is waived. In such cases, the bank official visits the pensioner's residence / hospital for the purpose of identification and obtaining specimen signature or thumb / toe impression.

A pensioner, who is old, sick or lost both his / her hands and, therefore, cannot sign, can put any mark or thumb / toe impression on the form for opening of pension account. While withdrawing the pension amount he / she can put thumb / toe impression on the cheque / withdrawal form and it should be identified by two independent witnesses known to the bank one of whom should be a bank official.

Yes. Even the Government employees earlier drawing their pension from a treasury or from a post office have the option to draw their pension from the authorized bank's branches.

Yes. All pensioners of the Central Government Pensioners which have accepted such arrangement can open Joint Account with their spouses, where the first applicant always remain the Pensioner.

Whether Joint Account of the pensioner with spouse can be operated either by ''Former or Survivor" or "Either or Survivor".
The Joint Account of the pensioner with spouse can be operated either as ''Former or Survivor" or "Either or Survivor".

The disbursement of pension by the paying branch is spread over the last four working days / last working day of the month depending on the convenience of the pension paying branch except for the month of March when the pension is credited on or after the first working day of April.

Yes. The paying branch before commencement of pension obtains an undertaking from the pensioner in the prescribed form for this purpose and, therefore, can recover the excess payment made to the pensioner's account due to delay in receipt of any material information or due to any bonafide error. The bank also has the right to recover the excess amount of pension credited to the deceased pensioner's account from his / her legal heirs / nominees.