New Delhi. Curiosity about the 8th Pay Commission is continuously increasing among central government employees and pensioners. Till now there were discussions about increase in salary, fitment factor and dearness allowance, but now post-retirement benefits and pension system have also become major issues. Many suggestions for improving the pension system have been given by employee organizations, which can be considered in the coming days.
Demand to increase pension intensifies
Employee representatives believe that in view of rising inflation and cost of living, financial security after retirement should be strengthened. For this purpose, a proposal has been made to increase the pension from the present 50 percent to 67 percent of the last received salary or the average salary of the last 10 months, whichever is higher. The objective of this proposal is to ensure that even after retirement, employees and their families can live a dignified life and do not have to face a sudden drop in income.
Pension may increase with increasing age
Another important suggestion regarding pension reform is that senior citizens should be given the benefit of additional pension as their age increases. According to the proposed system, starting from the age of 65 years, an additional increase of 5 percent in pension can be given every five years.
If this happens, then pensioners who reach the age of 90 years may have the possibility of getting pension equal to their last salary i.e. up to 100 percent. However, this is only at the suggestion stage and a final decision is yet to be taken.
Demand for options in OPS, NPS and UPS
An important aspect of the discussion on pension reforms is to give freedom to employees to choose their pension plan. Many employee organizations want employees to have the option to choose between Old Pension Scheme (OPS), National Pension System (NPS) or Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) as per their requirement and future planning.
OPS has a guaranteed fixed pension, while NPS works on a market-based investment model. Whereas UPS is being seen as a scheme to strike a balance between the two systems, which includes minimum pension security along with contributions.
Crores of people may be affected
The 8th Pay Commission is not limited to current employees only. Its decisions may impact more than 1.1 crore people, including central employees, pensioners and their dependent families. This is the reason why employee organizations and pensioners are keeping a special eye on every discussion related to the Commission.
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