Atal Pension Yojana: What Is This? Eligibility, Features, Benefits

The Atal Pension Yojana (APY), which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May 2015, is a pension scheme through which one can get a pension of Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 per month. More than 5 crore people have already registered for the scheme as of now.

Till October 2022, all citizens of India between the age of 18 and 40 years were eligible to join the scheme, irrespective of their tax-paying status. However, in October 2022, the government made changes to the Atal Pension Yojana’s rules. Now, any citizen who is or has been an income taxpayer will not be eligible to join the pension scheme.

Under the scheme, the Centre contributes 50 per cent of the subscriber’s contribution or Rs 1,000 per annum, whichever is lower. The government co-contribution is available for those who are not covered by any statutory social security schemes and is not income taxpayer.

The Atal Pension Yojana, announced in the Budget 2015-16, is a central government scheme for income security in the old age and is focused on all citizens in the unorganised sector. It is administered by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) through the National Pension System (NPS) architecture.

Under the scheme, there is a guaranteed minimum monthly pension for the subscribers ranging between Rs 1,000 and Rs 5,000 per month. The benefit of the minimum pension will be guaranteed by the government.

Under APY, a subscriber would receive a lifelong minimum guaranteed pension of Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 per month from the age of 60 years.

Exit From The Atal Pension Yojana Scheme

In case of death of the subscriber due to any cause: In case of death of subscriber, pension will 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.

On attaining the age of 60 years: The exit from Atal Pension Yojana is permitted at the age with 100 per cent annuitisation of pension wealth. On exit, pension would be available to the subscriber.

Exit before the age of 60 years: Exit before 60 years of age is not permitted. However, it is permitted only in exceptional circumstances, i.e., in the event of the death of beneficiary or terminal disease.