Big decision taken during 8th Pay Commission: These employees got the gift of old pension, government changed the rules!

The biggest demand of the employee unions before the 8th Pay Commission is to re-implement the Old Pension Scheme (OPS). Although the government has not yet taken any major decision on bringing back OPS completely, but giving a big relief to a particular category of employees, the government has given them the gift of old pension. This benefit will be available to those people whose appointment has been made on compassionate grounds.

According to an order issued by the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare (DoPPW) on June 22, 2026, some employees appointed on compassionate grounds after January 1, 2004, can be brought under the ambit of the old pension scheme. The only condition is that the application for their appointment should have been submitted before the cut-off date of implementation of NPS. This step of the government is being seen as a huge relief for those employees, who were confused about their pension status for years and were waiting for clarity.

What changes has the government made?

• Contrary to the rules till now, the government has decided that the date of application for compassionate appointment and not the date of actual appointment will be considered as the basis for determining eligibility for OPS.
• According to the order, families who had applied for compassionate appointment on or before December 31, 2003 and were eligible for it at that time, can now have their cases considered under the pension rules.
• This clarification has come for those cases where the applications were received before the implementation of the National Pension System (NPS) (January 1, 2004), but the jobs were received later due to administrative delays or paperwork.
• Who was being harmed? Till now many such employees were deprived of OPS benefits because their joining date was after 2004.

Who will benefit from this decision?

The direct benefit of this decision will be given to those families who got jobs on compassionate grounds and whose cases were before January 1, 2004.

What is compassionate appointment?

When a government employee dies during service or takes premature retirement on medical grounds, an eligible member is given a government job to help his family overcome the sudden financial crisis.

Since these appointments involve administrative scrutiny and long waiting lists, many cases filed before 2004 were finalized after 2004. Now with this order the fate of thousands of these employees will change.

Employee unions welcomed

National President of All India NPS Employees Federation (AINPSEF) Dr. Manjit Singh Patel has strongly welcomed this decision of the government. Expressing his happiness on social media, he said that compassionate employees who applied on or before December 31, 2003, will now be shifted to OPS. He called it a step to fulfill a very old and legitimate demand of thousands of employees and expressed his gratitude to the government. Along with this, Patel also reiterated the demand of the government to go one step further and provide a ‘guaranteed pension’ option for all retiring employees.

What is its connection with the 8th Pay Commission?

This order has come at a time when the issue of pension is the hottest in the meetings of the 8th Pay Commission. The Commission is currently holding meetings with employee organizations across the country. Recently, representatives of big departments like Railways, Defence, Health, Revenue and Communication participated in the two-day meetings held in Lucknow.

Employee organizations clearly say that the money received after retirement should not depend on market risks, rather it should be secure and fixed. This is the reason why the debate is intense regarding OPS, NPS and recently UPS.

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