New Delhi, June 20 (IANS). The central government on Saturday said the ‘Bhavishya’ pension processing platform has made life much easier for central government pensioners. This digital system has ensured timely settlement of pension cases, reduced delays and clerical errors and made pension services completely digital.
An official statement said that in the last 12 years this digital platform has brought a big change in the pension process. This has reduced delays in pension cases, reduced errors and enabled online processing of pension cases from start to finish.
‘Bhavishya’ portal was launched by the Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions as an integrated online system for pension sanction and payment.
It was made mandatory for all central civil ministries and departments from 1 January 2017.
Currently 99 ministries and departments are connected to this platform. Under these, 1,041 offices and 9,765 Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) are using this system.
A total of 3,28,116 Pension Payment Orders (PPOs) have been issued through the ‘Bhavishya’ portal till June 19, 2026. The government said that due to this platform, there has been a significant improvement in the efficiency of pension settlement.
According to the statement, now in about 73 percent of retirement related cases, pension payment orders are being issued on time. At the same time, 69 percent of family pension cases on death of an employee during service are being settled within six months.
The average time taken for issuing pension payment orders has reduced to 64 days.
The ‘Bhavishya’ portal was ranked third in the National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NESDA) 2021 for its contribution to digital governance and service delivery.
The department said that the new and simple pension application form 6-A has also been implemented on the ‘Bhavishya’ portal.
Various provisions of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021 have been amended through this single application form, notified on 16th July 2024, through which employees can apply for pension using only one e-sign facility.
So far, more than 64,000 retiring government employees have applied through this new Form 6-A.
The government says that this step has greatly simplified the application process and is a big step towards complete digitalization of the pension system.
To ensure uninterrupted continuity of services even after retirement, the ‘Bhavishya’ portal has also been linked to the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS).
After this integration, the retiring employees will continue to get the benefits of health facilities from the very first day of retirement.
–IANS
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