PFRDA to do own maths for pension age.

Launched with much fanfare in finance minister Pranab Mukherjee's Lok Sabha constituency last September, the PFRDA's pension scheme for the poor has run into a serious operational issue.

The NPS Lite scheme (referred to as Swavalamban) entails annual contributions of Rs 1,000 into the poor's pension accounts from the Centre. But it has run into a problem that plagues all poverty-alleviation schemes, beneficiaries with no documents to prove their identity or age.

In March, the PFRDA issued a circular, that doesn't seem to help much, either. For subscribers who 'do not possess any material evidence' of their Date of Birth,' the regulator has said that 'proof of age would be acceptable' to open pension accounts. While implementing agencies are wondering what proof of age wouldn't already include a citizen's birth date, a more curious implication arises from what the PFRDA proposes to do with the evidence.

Workers' birth-date would be calculated by subtracting the stated age from the date of submission of the age proof. For a pension scheme, this could be significant as benefits would only accrue when the PFRDA believes you have turned 60!

Source:ET