Child Suffering From Mental Disorder Entitled To Family Pension: Centre

Union Minister Jitendra Singh said public reiteration of the provision was needed because the Department of Pension and Pensioners' Welfare has noticed that in some cases banks are not allowing family pension to such children and are insisting on a guardianship certificate from courts.

New Delhi: The mentally retarded child of a deceased Government employee or pensioner is entitled to the family pension, said Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Sunday and urged people to understand and respect the spirit of the provision. The Minister said that the public reiteration was needed because the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare has noticed that in some cases banks are not allowing family pension to such children and are insisting on a guardianship certificate from courts.

Singh, the Union Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions emphasised that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi the government follows the mantra of good governance to provide “ease of living” for the common man.

“In that spirit, the provision of nomination for family pension is intended to avoid any hassle for a child, suffering from a mental disability, in obtaining guardianship certificate from the court or in claiming family pension after the death of his/her parents,” Singh said, according to an official release.

“Therefore, insisting on a guardianship certificate by a bank in such cases defeats the very purpose of such nomination and also amounts to a violation of the statutory provisions of Central Civil Service (Pension) Rules, 2021,” he added.

Further, he advised the chairmen and managing directors of all pension disbursing banks to issue suitable instructions to their centralised pension processing centres and pension paying branches for payment of family pension to a mentally retarded child through the person nominated by the government servant/pensioner/ family pensioner under the statutory provisions of the rules and not to insist for a guardianship certificate.

Notably, in recent months, the Department of Pensions has introduced many reforms including relaxation in the provision of family pension for divorced daughters, the introduction of face recognition tech through a mobile app for ease in submitting life certificates by elderly pensioners among others.