UPS EPS Employees:A new demand has started arising under the Employee Pension Scheme (EPS) started by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation.
Regarding the minimum pension, private sector employees are demanding that the government increase their minimum guaranteed pension.
Actually, the central government had recently announced to give guaranteed pension by bringing UPS for government employees, in which the minimum guaranteed pension is Rs 10,000. Since then, private employees have been pressurizing for an increase in monthly pension under the Employee Pension Scheme.
After UPS, private employees have started making this demand
Under UPS, government employees are entitled to get monthly pension on retirement, which will be 50 percent of their average basic salary of the last 12 months. The minimum pension guarantee has been fixed at Rs 10,000 per month.
This pension Employee Pension Scheme also includes inflation relief based on CPI. It is important to note that only those employees will be eligible for full pension who have completed 25 years of service.
Private employees wrote a letter to the government
The Chennai Employee Pension Scheme Pensioners Welfare Association recently wrote a letter to Union Labor and Employment Minister Mansukh Mandaviya advocating for a minimum monthly pension of Rs 9,000 and dearness allowance for pensioners under EPS.
The association emphasized on the inclusion of about 75 lakh pensioners under the Employee Pension Scheme and compared it with the Integrated Pension Scheme launched for government employees, which was introduced to benefit 23 lakh people.
Apart from this, the Chennai EPF Pensioners Welfare Association expressed its desire to place the matter of increasing the minimum pension before Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
EPFO Pension Calculation
Members of the Employees Provident Fund Organization are eligible for pension on retirement. As per the existing rules, both the employee and the employer allocate 12% of the basic salary and dearness allowance to EPF. The employer’s 12% contribution is divided into two parts, of which 8.33% goes to the Employee Pension Scheme and the remaining 3.67% goes to EPF.
Maximum investment in pension is Rs 15,000
It is worth noting that the contribution of 8.33% for EPS is limited to a maximum of Rs 15,000, no matter how high the employee’s salary is. This limit of Employee Pension Scheme contribution was fixed in 2014 after amendment in EPS guidelines.
After UPS, private employees have started making these demands, what are the demands regarding pension?
Last week, a delegation of the pensioners’ body Employee Pension Scheme-95 National Movement Committee met senior officials of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation and stressed their long-standing demand of a minimum monthly pension of Rs 7,500.
The members also demanded full medical coverage for EPS members and their spouses, the EPS-95 National Movement Committee (NAC) said in a statement.
Employee Pension Scheme-95 NAC members have been protesting demanding a monthly pension of Rs 7,500 instead of the current average monthly pension of Rs 1,450.
Earlier this month, Union Labour and Employment Minister Mansukh Mandaviya had met representatives of the EPS-95 NAC and assured them that the government would take necessary steps to meet their demand.