WHAT IS THE LIFE TIME ARREARS ?

WHAT IS THE LIFE TIME ARREARS (LTA) OF PENSION ?

The LTA is the amount of undrawn pension accumulated in the SB a/c/Current a/c of the pensioner after the date of death of the pensioner. (Pension is payable including the date of death of the pensioner)

Normally a pensioner is required to give nomination for this purpose while submitting his pension papers. Therefore the name of the Nominee for this LTA is always entered in the first page of the pension book. The Bank can pay the LTA to the nominee, after identifying without insisting for any legal heirship certificate.

The amount of LTA payable to a Defence family pensioner during the implementation period of various pay commissions will be the arrears payable to him if he would have been alive on that date. But now this amount of arrears payable to his Nominee goes unnoticed because the pensioner is not alive and there is nobody to guide and get her paid. The ignorance of the family pensioner and the lethargic attitude of the banks are the main reasons for the lapses in these cases.

For exmaple, the orders for the implementation of the 5th CPC was issued on 14.07.1998 for effecting the payment w.e.f. 01.01.1996 i.e. after 30 months.

Similarly the orders for the implementation of the 6th CPC also was issued on 11.11.2008 for effecting the payment with retrospective effect from 01.01.2006.

Similarly the order for improvement in pension for the PBORs (Circular 350) was issued on 19.5.2006 for effecting payment w.e.f. 01.01.2006.

Supposing a pensioner died during the intervening periods i.e. between 01.01.96 to 14.07.98, 01.01.06 and 01.01.06 to 19.5.2006, the names of these pensioners are totally removed from the arrears payment list with the remarks “died on…..” and the files are closed and kept separately.

Unless the nominee is well aware of the LTA rules and claims for it, it is very difficult to get the LTA from the Banks. None of the banks suo motto calculates the LTA and pay to the nominees.

While all the living pensioners are struggling to get their revised pension and arrears from the Banks, there is no one to guide these unfortunate family pensioners to get their LTA. Because, after the death of the pensioner, the main issue taken up is the Family pension. Since the Bank shows lot of resistance to release the family pension itself, they forget and ignore the LTA claims.

There are many defence family pensioners whose husbands died during the above period are unaware of their LTA entitlement even though the amount involved is between Rs.10000 to 25000.

There I request the readers of this blog to first identify the effected family pensioners known to them and guide them accordingly. If the readers need any help in this regard, they may kindly contact us with full particulars of the family pensioner for necessary help.