Entitlement for family on death of a Central Government servant covered under National Pension System – Applicable rates of death gratuity

 Entitlement for family on death of a Central Government servant covered under National Pension System – Applicable rates of death gratuity

No. – 57/03/2022-P&PW(B)/8361 (1)
Government of India
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions
Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare
***

3rd Floor, Lok Nayak Bhavan, Khan Market,
New Delhi, Dated the 28th October, 2022

OFFICE MEMORANDUM

Subject: Entitlement for family on death of a Central Government servant covered under National Pension System -reg.

The undersigned is directed to say that Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare has notified the Central Civil Services (Implementation of National Pension System) Rules, 2021 and Central Civil Services (Payment of Gratuity under National Pension System) Rules, 2021 which are applicable from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette, to govern service related matters and for grant of gratuity respectively to Central Government civil employees covered under National Pension System.

2. Rule 20 of the Central Civil Services (Implementation of NPS) Rules, 2021 provides for the entitlement of family members on death of a Central Government covered under National Pension System. As per rule 20, on death of a Subscriber, who had exercised option or in whose case the default option under rule 10 of the CCS(Implementation of NPS) Rules, 2021 is for availing benefits under the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972 or Central Civil Services (Extraordinary Pension) Rules , further action will be taken by the Head of Office for disbursement of benefits in accordance with the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules. However, if the death is attributable to Government service, further action will be taken by the Head of Office for disbursement of benefits in accordance with the Central Civil Services (Extraordinary Pension) Rules subject to fulfillment of all the conditions for grant of benefits under those rules.

3. If on death of the Subscriber, benefits are payable to the family under the Central Civil Services (Extraordinary Pension) Rules or the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, the Government contribution and returns thercon in the accumulated pension corpus of the Subscriber shall be transferred to Government account. The remaining accumulated pension corpus shall be paid in lump sum to the person(s) in whose favour a nomination has been made under the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (Exits and Withdrawals under National Pension System) Regulations, 2015. If there 1s no such nomination or if the nomination made does not subsist, the amount of remaining accumulated pension corpus shall be paid to the legal heir(s). 

4. In the case of death of a Subscriber who had exercised option or in whose case the default option under rule 10 of the CCS(Implementation of NPS) Rules, 2021 is for availing benefits under the National Pension System, such benefits may be granted in accordance with the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (Exits and Withdrawals under National Pension System) Regulations, 2015.

5. In the event of death of Government employees covered under NPS during service, and in whose case benefits from accumulated pension corpus under NPS have been availed, family member of such deceased Government employee would also be eligible for death gratuity in accordance with rule 22 of the Central Civil Services (Payment of Gratuity under NPS) Rules, 2021. The rates provided in the rules for death gratuity is as under:

Sl. No.	Length of qualifying service	Rate of death gratuity
(i)	Less than one year	Two times of emoluments.
(ii)	Once year or more but less than five years	Six times of emoluments
(iii)	Five years or more but less than eleven years	Twelve times of emoluments
(iv)	Eleven years or more but less than twenty years re	Twenty times of emoluments
(v)	Twenty years or more	Half of emoluments for every completed six monthly period of qualifying service subject to a maximum of thirty three times of emoluments:

The maximum amount of death gratuity payable under this rule shall in no case exceed twenty lakh rupees.

6. All Ministries/Departments are requested that the above provisions regarding entitlement in respect to Central Government employees covered under National Pension System may be brought to the notice of the Government servants covered under NPS and personnel dealing with the pensionary benefits in the Ministry/Department and attached/subordinate offices thereunder, for strict implementation.

(S. Chakrabarti)
Under Secretary to the Government of India

To
All Ministries/Departments/Organisations,
(As per standard list)