I find the following request made in the above mentioned letter to LIC Chairperson:
- "3.In the matter of Family Pensioners, only the projected age of the Original Pensioners as on 7.5.24 be taken for the eligibility of Ex-gratia payment to them, and not the age of Family Pensioners, as they could be deceased pensioners spouses and dependent children too and obviously their ages may be much less than the deceased pensioner."
If the projected age of the original pensioners is to be taken for payment of ex gratia payment to family pensioners, it will be imperative to do the same in respect of deceased retirees with projected age of 70 as at 7/5/2024 where family pensioners are not alive and make payment to nominees/legal heirs.
If projected age of deceased retirees is taken as 70 for payment of ex gratia, an anomalous situation may arise where a family pensioner aged less than 70 years receives the payment, but a living retiree-pensioner aged less than 70 and who missed pension upgradations with wage revisions from 1/8/ 2012 as on 7/5/2024 will be denied the ex gratia benefit.
Under the same logic , nominees/legal heirs of deceased family pensioners whose projected age on 7/5/2024 is 70 or more will have to be paid ex gratia amount.
The frame of reference for ex gratia payment is the retirees and family pensioners aged 70 or more as on 7/5/2024 and not deceased retirees and family pensioners.
The right demand from LIC will be to remove the cut -off age of 70 and extend the benefit of ex gratia to all employees retired before 1/8/2022,family pensioners/nominees/legal heirs of deceased employees who died before retirement on a date before 1/8/2022 and those who died after retirement on a date before 1/8/2022.The full pension payable to family pensioners of employees who died before retirementshould not come in the way, as there is a loss of commutation value of pension which would have been received by the deceased employee had he been alive .In case of retirees who died before age 65, even though commuted pension has been received by the deceased retiree,because of the lower quantum of family pension that will only be received over a long term during the latter's life time.
As long as upgradation of pension is not provided with every wage revisions,there will be no end to anomalies causing agony to retirees and family pensioners. Ex gratia pension is just a patch work and I found that the ex gratia payment being paid to me is just a pittance of 2.1% of accumulated losses from 1/8/2002 to 31/3/2024 on account of non-upgradation of pension.
There is no short cut to satisfying pensioners except upgradation of pension.
C H Mahadevan
No comments:
Post a Comment