Don’t deny pension because of Aadhaar card: EPFO to banks

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), in its circular dated April 9, asked banks to not deny monthly pension to people for want of biometric authentication or Aadhaar cards. It said that alternative means of identification like life certificates can be used if needed.

The retirement fund body issued a circular to all the heads of pension disbursing banks and postal services, which listed out that a person can’t be denied his/her monthly pension if biometric identification, be it fingerprint or iris scan, failed.

EPFO asked the banks to ensure that the pensioners are facilitated for Aadhaar enrolment and also a paper life certificate is accepted, in place of a digitally generated one, for those pensioners who have already enrolled for Aadhaar.

It also stated that people who don’t have Aadhaar must be encouraged to get the same and till the time they do so, life certificates could be accepted as an alternate means of identification.

EPFO also advised the banks to make provisions for IRIS scanners and fingerprint mechanism in their branches for authentication of identity. The circular stated that there were cases when iris-scan authentication was successful even if fingerprint mechanism failed.

In cases where both iris and fingerprint authentication fail, EPFO has asked the concerned banks to maintain a record of the beneficiaries’ details in an exception register, with the exact reason. 

The pension will be given on the basis of paper life certificates and physical Aadhaar card after proper verification as considered fit by the bank.