Provide detailed information to staff on Unified Pension Scheme, directs Railways Ministry
There was an urgent need to ensure wide and effective communication among all employees regarding options available under the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS), the Union Ministry of Railways has said.
In a written communication addressed to the Principal Chief Personnel Officers of all 17 Railway Zones, the Ministry said that an immediate and proactive measure was needed to "disseminate clear, accurate and comprehensive information about the available options under the UPS".
"It is essential that employees are well-informed and supported in making their decisions," the Ministry said.
The Ministry also urged officials to organise facilitation camps at various locations, ensuring adequate support from human resources, and finance personnel, and subject matter experts.
"These camps should serve as a platform for employees to seek guidance, clarify doubts and complete their registration process with ease," the circular dated May 21 said.
"Additionally, you are requested to maintain detailed records of the facilitation camps conducted, including dates, location, the number of employees who attended and those who completed their registration," the Ministry added.
The Union Government has introduced the New Pension Scheme (NPS) for new recruits, and provided options to the present employees to choose between the existing NPS, or the UPS.
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However, the regular income generated by annuity purchased with 40% of the remaining retirement corpus may not be as big as in case of in NPS, the employees have the option of investing their corpus in equities which isn't possible with UPS. This means there is a greater potential for a bigger corpus in NPS compared to UPS, especially if the stock market yields returns of over 8% to 10% per annum during their a table showing how UPS and NPS differs:
