Four years of LDF rule has seen a whopping surge of 14.92 lakh beneficiaries to the social security pension scheme. In place of 33.99 lakh who drew on the benefit in 2015-16, the pensioners’ tally rose to 48.91 lakh in 2019-20. Also, the minimum pension now stands at Rs 1300 per month from Rs 600 earlier.
Beneficiaries, both old and added, are entitled to remittances from local self-governing bodies, in categories ranging from Old Age Pension, Farm Worker’s Pension, Disability Pension, Widow Pension and Pension For Unmarried Women Above 50 years. Since July of 2016, pensions are credited directly into beneficiary bank accounts or delivered in person at the residential addresses.
Currently there are 38.97 lakh pensioners across panchayats, 5.84 lakh in various municipalities and 3.37 across corporations. Of these, 52 lakh are farm workers and 25.17 lakh are being paid old-age pension. Four lakh pensioners fall in the disabled category while 84,896 women draw pension in the Unmarried Above-50 category. Among women, another 13.56 lakh receive widow pension.
During UDF tenure, a total of Rs 8,429 crore was paid in pensions while LDF govt has so far disbursed Rs 23,255 crores in social security pensions.
