Government employees beware! Before choosing UPS, understand its biggest drawback, otherwise, there will be trouble later

The Unified Pension Scheme (UPS), launched by the government to end the 20-year-long protest and agitation demanding the old pension, is facing a lot of opposition. Employee organizations say that it has many flaws. Its biggest drawback has come out from an answer from Finance Secretary TV Somanathan, which has outweighed all its advantages.

The biggest drawback of UPS comes to the fore in the case of VRS. If an employee chooses the option of voluntary retirement before the age of 60, then when will he get a pension? When this question was asked to Finance Secretary TV Somanathan, he answered that no matter when you retire, pension under UPS will be available only after completion of retirement age.

This flaw in the pension scheme available after retirement will create a big problem. The retirement age is different in all the departments in the country. The retirement age in universities is 65 years. In some departments, it is 60 years and in some, it is 58 years. In such a situation, if a person retires at the age of 58, he will have to wait for two years for a pension. On the other hand, if an employee takes VRS at the age of 50, then you will have to wait for 10 years to get a pension under UPS.

Then says that if a youth who took a job at the age of 25 wants to take VRS after completing 25 years of service at the age of 50, then he will not have any option to take a pension under UPS for 10 years. What is the guarantee that he will be alive for the next 10 years or not? In such a situation, the government needs to remove the biggest drawback of this scheme and should also make a provision for pension for those taking VRS.

Under this scheme, a minimum pension of Rs 10,000 has been fixed for 10 years of service, while the pension calculation for 25 years of service will be done by another formula. In such a situation, the pension given after retirement will be based on their years of service and average income.

The government will contribute 18.5 percent to the UPS pension fund. While the employee's contribution will be only 10%. There is also a provision for family pension in it. After the death of the employee, 60 percent of the employee's pension will be given as a family pension.

UPS has made a provision for a lump sum amount on retirement, which will be calculated as the 10th part of the basic salary and dearness allowance for every 6 months of service of the employee. Also, through the Unified Pension Scheme, government employees will get the benefit of inflation indexation. Dearness Relief (DR) will also be added to the pension calculation.

Government employees can choose any scheme from NPS or UPS. If an employee once decides to avail the benefits under UPS, he cannot return to NPS again.