Big news on pension scheme: Deadline for switching from NPS to UPS extended, find out when the opportunity is available..

There's significant news regarding the pension scheme for central government employees. The central government has extended the deadline for switching from the National Pension Scheme (NPS) to the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS). Central employees now have two months to consider and decide. While the previous deadline was September 30, 2025, it has now been extended to November 30, 2025. This decision by the central government has brought significant relief to millions of central government employees and pensioners.

The initial deadline for switching from NPS to UPS was three months, with the deadline being June 30, 2025. This was later extended to September 30, and has now been extended by another two months to November 30, 2025.

Finance Ministry informs pension regulator.
The Department of Financial Services (DFS) of the Finance Ministry has officially informed the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) in a letter to this effect. It states that several stakeholders had requested more time to implement the current changes, and the deadline has been extended.

The Ministry has directed the PFRDA to make all necessary changes to the Central Recordkeeping Agency (CRA) system regarding this pension scheme and issue a circular to implement this decision. The notification states that the extension has been approved by the Finance Minister.

1 lakh people have switched so far
The central government, in response to a question in Parliament, stated that as of July 20, 31,555 central government employees had switched from the NPS to the UPS. According to PTI, 100,000 central employees have opted to switch from NPS to UPS by the previous deadline of September 30th. 2.3 million government employees have the option to switch from NPS to UPS.

What is UPS, and what are its benefits?
After the abolition of the old pension scheme, the central government launched the National Pension Scheme (NPS), a market-linked scheme. Later, in response to the demand of central employees, the government introduced the UPS, a Unified Pension Scheme (UPS), which provides a guaranteed monthly pension after retirement. It came into effect on April 1, 2025. It applies to all central employees who joined service on or after January 1, 2004, and for whom the NPS is applicable by default. UPS has been introduced for those eligible individuals.

While NPS is a market-linked scheme, investing in shares, bonds, and government securities helps your corpus grow. UPS provides a guaranteed fixed pension. While NPS may offer higher long-term returns, it also involves market risk. UPS, on the other hand, is completely safe.

Under UPS, employees with at least 10 years of service will receive a minimum monthly pension of ₹10,000. Those with 25 years of service or more will receive 50% of their average salary for the last 12 months. The government will also contribute an additional 8.5% to employees' contributions to ensure a fixed monthly pension.

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