Digital Life Certificate: EPFO gives these facilities to 67 lakh EPS pensioners

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) has facilitated multiple options for EPS pensioners to submit their DLC, close to their home or at their doorstep, amid the COVID-19 situation.

Image courtesy: Reuters

New Delhi: The Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) has extended multiple options for submission of digital life certificate by EPS pensioners. The initiatives will benefit approximately 67 lakh EPS pensioners out of which about 21 lakh are widow/widower, children, and orphan pensioners.

All pensioners of Employees’ Pension Scheme 1995 (EPS’95) are required to submit Jeevan Pramaan Patra (JPP) / Digital Life Certificate (DLC) each year to continue drawing a pension, said an official statement. 

In the current scenario of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) has facilitated multiple options for EPS pensioners to submit their DLC, close to their home or at their doorstep. The JPP submitted through all these modes/agencies are equally valid, it said.

EPS pensioners can now submit DLC at pension disbursing bank branch and nearest post offices, and it can also be submitted at a nation-wide network of over 3.65 lakh Common Services Centers (CSC), besides 135 regional offices and 117 district offices of EPFO. They can also submit DLC using the UMANG app.

Notably, India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has recently launched the doorstep Digital Life Certificate (DLC) service for pensioners, who can now submit an online request for availing doorstep DLC service on payment of a nominal fee. 

A postman from the nearest Post Office will visit a pensioner and complete the process of generating DLC at the home of the pensioner only.

As per fresh guidelines, the EPS pensioners can now submit DLC at any time during the year, as per their convenience. The life certificate will remain valid for one year from the date of submission of DLC. The pensioners who have been issued Pension Payment Order (PPO) in 2020 need not upload JPP till the completion of one year.  

Earlier, all EPS pensioners were required to submit the DLC in the month of November, but this caused difficulties for pensioners due to long queues as it generated a rush for submission of Digital Life Certificate. 

As senior citizens are at a higher risk for severe illness from Coronavirus, this pro-pensioner step has been taken to provide hassle-free social security cover to EPS pensioners.