What is Atal Pension Yojana? How can you take advantage of this?
Atal Pension Yojana (APY), is a pension scheme for the citizens of India focused on workers in the unorganized sector. Under APY, a guaranteed minimum pension of Rs 1,000/- or 2,000/- or 3000/- or 4000 or 5000/- per month at the age of 60 years will be guaranteed depending on the contribution by the subscribers. Any citizen of India can join the APY scheme. It has the following eligibility criteria:
The age of the customer should be between 18 to 40 years
He should have a savings bank account with the post office/savings bank
The prospective applicant may provide the Aadhar and Mobile number to the Bank during registration to facilitate the receipt of periodic updates to the APY Account. However, Aadhar card is not mandatory for enrollment.
pension requirement
A pension provides a monthly income to people when they are not earning.
Earning potential declines with age
Rise of the Nuclear Family – Escape of the Earning Member
increase in cost of living
increase in longevity
Fixed monthly income ensures a dignified life in old age.
Mode of Contribution, How to Contribute and Due Date of Contribution
Contribution can be made at monthly / quarterly / half yearly intervals from the savings bank account / post office savings bank account of the customer through auto debit facility. Monthly/quarterly/half yearly contribution depends on the desired monthly pension and the age of the subscriber at the time of admission. Contribution towards APY can be paid through Savings Bank Account/Post Office Savings Bank Account on any particular date of the month, any day of the first month in case of monthly contribution or the first month of the quarter in case of quarterly contribution or in the case of half-yearly contributions, on any day of the month preceding the half year.
In case of continuous default
Customers should keep sufficient amount in their Savings Bank Accounts/Post Office Savings Bank Account to avoid any overdue interest towards due date delayed contribution. Monthly / Quarterly / Half yearly contribution can be deposited in the Savings Bank Account / Post Office Savings Bank Account on the 1st of the month / quarter / half yearly. However, if the customer has an insufficient balance in his savings bank account/post office savings bank account on the last day of the first month/last day of the first quarter/first half of the first half, it will be treated as a default and will be followed by overdue interest for delayed contribution. Must be paid in month. Banks are to charge Re 1 per month of delay for every Rs 100 for each delayed monthly contribution. Overdue interest for delayed contribution for quarterly/half yearly mode of contribution will be recovered. The amount of outstanding interest collected will remain as part of the pension fund of the subscriber. More than one monthly/quarterly/half yearly contribution can be taken subject to availability of funds. In all cases, the contribution, if any, can be credited along with the overdue amount. This will be an internal process of the bank. The amount due will be recovered as per the funds available in the account.
Maintenance charges and other related charges will be deducted from the customer’s account on a periodic basis. For customers who have availed Government co-contribution, the amount in the account will be treated as zero when the amount equals to maintenance charges, fees and overdue interest on deducting from subscriber corpus and government co-contribution account and hence Net fund becomes zero. In this case the co-contribution of the government will be given back to the government.
other important facts
It is mandatory to provide enrollment details in APY account. If the subscriber is married, the spouse will be the default nominee. Unmarried customers can nominate any other person as nominee but after marriage they will have to provide the details of the spouse. Aadhar details of spouse and nominee can be provided.
A customer can open only one APY account and it is unique. Multiple accounts are not allowed.
A subscriber can choose to increase or decrease the pension amount once during a year.
APY customers will be informed from time to time through SMS alerts regarding activation of PRAN, account balance, contribution credit etc. The physical statement of account will also be given to the customer once in a year.
Annual physical details of APY will also be provided to the customers.
Contribution can also be remitted through auto debit without interruption in case of change of residence/location.
The scheme is only for Indian citizens.
Customer can change the mode (monthly/quarterly/half yearly) of auto debit facility once in a year during the month of April.
