New Unified Pension Scheme to benefit 63,000 SCR employees

Hyderabad: The recently approved ‘Unified Pension Scheme’ for Central and State Government employees will benefit around 63,000 SCR employees, said P Kishore Babu, Principal Chief Personnel Officer, South Central Railway on Tuesday at Rail Nilayam, Secunderabad to brief the media persons on the highlights and benefits of the newly announced scheme. S Vivekananda, Principal Financial Advisor, SCR along with other senior Railway officials also participated in the press conference.

Addressing the gathering, Kishore Babu stated that the Unified Pension Scheme can be opted by all the Central government employees, who are the subscribers of the New Pension Scheme. He stated that around 23 lakh Central Government employees will be benefited from the recently announced Unified Pension Scheme. As part of the same, around 63,000 employees working in South Central Railway will be benefited, about 75 per cent of the total employees in the zone.

The Principal Chief Personnel Officer also stated that the Unified Pension Scheme will come into effect from April 1, 2025 and has five major benefits i.e., Assured Pension, Assured Family Pension, Assured minimum pension, Inflation Indexation and lump-sum payment at superannuation in addition to gratuity. He stated that the Unified Pension Scheme is more

advantageous compared to the New Pension scheme as it offers an assured pension thereby ensuring honour and financial security for the staff. He stated that it is important to spread awareness on the newly announced scheme so that more number of government employees can avail the benefits.