Some Frequently Asked Questions-Atal Pension Yojana

1. What is Pen­sion? Why do I need it? 

 A Pen­sion pro­vides peo­ple with a month­ly income when they are no longer earning.

Need for Pension:

• Decreased income earn­ing poten­tial with age.

• The rise of nuclear fam­i­ly-Migra­tion of earn­ing members.

• Rise in cost of living.

• Increased longevi­ty.

Assured month­ly income ensures dig­ni­fied life in old age.

2. What is Atal Pen­sion Yojana?

Atal Pen­sion Yojana (APY),¹ a pen­sion scheme for cit­i­zens of India focussed on the unor­gan­ised sec­tor work­ers. Under the APY, guar­an­teed min­i­mum pen­sion of Rs. 1,000/-, 2,000/-, 3,000/-, 4,000 and 5,000/- per month will be giv­en at the age of 60 years depend­ing on the con­tri­bu­tions by the subscribers.

3. Who can sub­scribe to APY?

Any Cit­i­zen of India can join APY scheme. The fol­low­ing are the eli­gi­bil­i­ty cri­te­ria, i The age of the sub­scriber should be between 18 — 40 years.

ii        He / She should have a sav­ings bank account/ open a sav­ings bank account.

iii The prospec­tive appli­cant should be in pos­ses­sion of mobile num­ber and its details are to be fur­nished to the bank dur­ing registration.

• Gov­ern­ment co-con­tri­bu­tion is avail­able for 5 years, i.e., from 2015–16 to 2019–20 for the sub­scribers who join the scheme dur­ing the peri­od from 1^st June, 2015 to 31^st Decem­ber, 2015 and who are not cov­ered by any Statu­to­ry Social Secu­ri­ty Schemes and are not income tax payers.

The Scheme is sub­ject to the approval of the Government.

4. Who are the oth­er social secu­ri­ty schemes ben­e­fi­cia­ries not eli­gi­ble to receive Gov­ern­ment co-con­tri­bu­tion under APY?

Ben­e­fi­cia­ries who are cov­ered under statu­to­ry social secu­ri­ty schemes are not eli­gi­ble to receive Gov­ern­ment co-con­tri­bu­tion. For exam­ple, mem­bers of the Social Secu­ri­ty Schemes under the fol­low­ing enact­ments would not be eli­gi­ble to receive Gov­ern­ment co-contribution:

1952. Employ­ees’ Prov­i­dent Fund & Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sion Act, 1952.

1948. The Coal Mines Prov­i­dent Fund and Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sion Act, 1948.
1949. Assam Tea Plan­ta­tion Prov­i­dent Fund and Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sion, 1955.

1966. Sea­mens’ Prov­i­dent Fund Act, 1966.

1961. Jam­mu Kash­mir Employ­ees’ Prov­i­dent Fund & Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sion Act, 1961.

1. Any oth­er statu­to­ry social secu­ri­ty scheme.

5. How much pen­sion will be received under APY?

Guar­an­teed min­i­mum pen­sion of Rs 1,000/-, 2,000/-, 3,000/-, 4,000 and 5,000/- per month will be giv­en at the age of 60 years depend­ing on the con­tri­bu­tions by the subscribers.

6. What is the ben­e­fit in join­ing APY scheme?

In APY, Gov­ern­ment will co-con­tribute 50% of the total con­tri­bu­tion or Rs. 1,000/- per

annum, whichev­er is low­er, to the eli­gi­ble APY account hold­ers who join the scheme dur­ing the peri­od 1^st June, 2015 to 31^st Decem­ber, 2015. The Gov­ern­ment co-con­tri­bu­tion will be giv­en for 5 years from FY 2015–16 to 2019–20.

7. How are the con­tri­bu­tions of APY invested? 

The con­tri­bu­tions under APY are invest­ed as per the invest­ment guide­lines pre­scribed by Min­istry of Finance, Gov­ern­ment of India. The APY scheme is admin­is­tered by PFRDA/GOVERNMENT.

8. What is the pro­ce­dure for open­ing APY Account?

• Approach the bank branch where individual’s sav­ings bank account is held.

• Fill up the APY reg­is­tra­tion form.

• Pro­vide Aadhaar/Mobile Number.

• Ensure keep­ing the required bal­ance in the sav­ings bank account for trans­fer of month­ly contribution.

9. Whether Aad­haar Num­ber is com­pul­so­ry for join­ing the scheme?

It is not manda­to­ry to pro­vide Aad­haar num­ber for open­ing APY account. How­ev­er, For enrol­ment, Aad­haar would be the pri­ma­ry KYC doc­u­ment for iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of ben­e­fi­cia­ries, spouse and nom­i­nees to avoid pen­sion rights and enti­tle­ment relat­ed dis­putes in the long-term.

10. Can I open APY Account with­out sav­ings bank account?

No. For join­ing APY, sav­ings bank account is mandatory.

11. What is the mode of con­tri­bu­tion to the account?

All the con­tri­bu­tions are to be remit­ted month­ly through auto-deb­it facil­i­ty from sav­ings bank account of the subscriber.

12. What is the due date for month­ly contribution?

The due date for month­ly con­tri­bu­tion will be as per the ini­tial date of deposit of con­tri­bu­tion into APY.

13. What will hap­pen if required or suf­fi­cient amount is not main­tained in the sav­ings bank account for con­tri­bu­tion on the due date?

Non-main­te­nance of required bal­ance in the sav­ings bank account for con­tri­bu­tion on the spec­i­fied date will be con­sid­ered as default. Banks are required to col­lect addi­tion­al amount for delayed pay­ments, such amount will vary from min­i­mum Re 1 per month to Rs 10/- per month as shown below:

1 per month for con­tri­bu­tion upto Rs. 100 per month.

2 per month for con­tri­bu­tion upto Rs. 101 to 500/- per month.

Re 5 per month for con­tri­bu­tion between Rs 501/- to 1000/- per month.

Rs 10 per month for con­tri­bu­tion beyond Rs 1001/- per month.

Dis­con­tin­u­a­tion of pay­ments of con­tri­bu­tion amount shall lead to following:

After 6 months account will be frozen.

After 12 months account will be deactivated.

After 24 months account will be closed.

Sub­scriber should ensure that the Bank account to be fund­ed enough for auto deb­it of con­tri­bu­tion amount.

The fixed amount of interest/penalty will remain as part of the pen­sion cor­pus of the subscriber.

14. How much should I invest in APY to get the guar­an­teed pen­sion of Rs. 1000?

	Age of		Years of		Indica­tive
	Join­ing		Con­tri­bu­tion		Month­ly
					con­tri­bu­tion
	18		42		42
	20		40		50
	25		35		76
	30		30		116
	35		25		181
	40		20		291
				4

All the con­tri­bu­tions are to be remit­ted month­ly through auto deb­it facil­i­ty from sav­ings bank account of the subscriber.

*For detailed age wise con­tri­bu­tion refer Annex­ure 1.

15. Is it required to fur­nish nom­i­na­tion while join­ing the scheme?

Yes. It is manda­to­ry to pro­vide nom­i­nee details in APY account. The spouse details are also manda­to­ry wher­ev­er applic­a­ble. Their aad­haar details are also to be provided.

16. How many APY accounts I can open?

A sub­scriber can open only one APY account and it is unique.

17. Will there be any option to increase or decrease the month­ly con­tri­bu­tion for high­er or low­er pen­sion amount?

The sub­scribers can opt to decrease or increase pen­sion amount dur­ing the course of accu­mu­la­tion phase, as per the avail­able month­ly pen­sion amounts. How­ev­er, the switch­ing option shall be pro­vid­ed once in year dur­ing the month of April.

18. What is the with­draw­al pro­ce­dure from APY?

1. On attain­ing the age of 60 years:

The exit from APY is per­mit­ted at the age with 100% annuiti­sa­tion of pen­sion wealth. On exit, pen­sion would be avail­able to the subscriber.

1. In case of death of the Sub­scriber due to any cause:

In case of death of sub­scriber pen­sion would be avail­able to the spouse and on the death of both of them (sub­scriber and spouse), the pen­sion cor­pus would be returned to his nominee.

1. Exit Before the age of 60 Years:

The Exit before age 60 would be per­mit­ted only in excep­tion­al cir­cum­stances, i.e., in the event of the death of ben­e­fi­cia­ry or ter­mi­nal disease.

19. How will I know the sta­tus of my contribution?

The sta­tus of con­tri­bu­tions will be inti­mat­ed to the reg­is­tered mobile num­ber of the sub­scriber by way of peri­od­i­cal SMS alerts. The Sub­scriber will also be receiv­ing phys­i­cal State­ment of Account.

20. Will I get any state­ment of transactions

Yes. Peri­od­ic state­ment of APY account will be pro­vid­ed to the subscribers.

21. If I move my residence/city, how can I make con­tri­bu­tions to APY account?

The con­tri­bu­tions may be remit­ted through auto deb­it unin­ter­rupt­ed­ly even in case of dislocation.

22. What will hap­pen to exist­ing sub­scribers in Swavalam­ban Yojana?

• All the reg­is­tered sub­scribers under Swavalam­ban Yojana aged between 18–40 yrs will be auto­mat­i­cal­ly migrat­ed to APY with an option to opt out. How­ev­er, the ben­e­fit of five years of Gov­ern­ment Co-con­tri­bu­tion under APY would be avail­able only to the extent availed by the Swavalam­ban sub­scriber already. This would imply that if, as a Swavalam­ban ben­e­fi­cia­ry, he has received the ben­e­fit of gov­ern­ment Co-Con­tri­bu­tion of 1 year, then the Gov­ern­ment co-con­tri­bu­tion under APY would be avail­able only for 4 years and so on. Exist­ing Swavalam­ban ben­e­fi­cia­ries opt­ing out from the pro­posed APY will be giv­en Gov­ern­ment co-con­tri­bu­tion till 2016–17, if eli­gi­ble, and the NPS Swavalam­ban con­tin­ued till such peo­ple attain the age of exit under that scheme.

• Oth­er sub­scribers above 40 years who do not wish to con­tin­ue may opt out of the scheme with lump sum withdrawal.

• Sub­scribers above 40 years may also opt to con­tin­ue till the age of 60 years and eli­gi­ble for annuities.

• The exist­ing Swavalam­ban scheme may be auto­mat­i­cal­ly migrat­ed to APY

Indica­tive APY Con­tri­bu­tion Chart (Age­wise)						Annex­ure 1.
		Month­ly	Month­ly			Month­ly
Age of	Years of	pen­sion of	pen­sion of Rs.	Month­ly pension	Month­ly pension	pen­sion of Rs.
Entry	Con­tri­bu­tion	Rs. 1000.	2000.	of Rs. 3000.	of Rs. 4000.	5000.
18	42	42	84	126	168	210
19	41	46	92	138	183	228
20	40	50	100	150	198	248
21	39	54	108	162	215	269
22	38	59	117	177	234	292
23	37	64	127	192	254	318
24	36	70	139	208	277	346
25	35	76	151	226	301	376
26	34	82	164	246	327	409
27	33	90	178	268	356	446
28	32	97	194	292	388	485
29	31	106	212	318	423	529
30	30	116	231	347	462	577
				7

31	29	126	252	379	504	630
32	28	138	276	414	551	689
33	27	151	302	453	602	752
34	26	165	330	495	659	824
35	25	181	362	543	722	902
36	24	198	396	594	792	990
37	23	218	436	654	870	1,087
38	22	240	480	720	957	1,196
39	21	264	528	792	1,054	1,318
40	20	291	582	873	1,164	1,454