Central Government Pension Procedure – Frequently Asked Questions

(a) Pension Disbursing Authority

(b) Pension Sanctioning Authority

(c) PPO Issuing Authority

During service each Govt. servant should satisfy himself that service is being verified and recorded so in the service book and that there are no gaps in this. He should also ensure that nomination for all payments due to him are current and valid. Eight months prior to the retirement date, a Government servant is required to furnish certain information (e.g. joint photo with spouse, family details, name of the branch of the authorized bank through which he desires to draw his pension etc.) to his Head of Office in the prescribed Form No. 5. The Head of Office is required to undertake the work of preparation of pension papers in Form No. 7 of two years before the date on which a Government servant is due to retire on superannuation. After complying with the requirements of CCS Pension Rules 59 & 60, the Head of Office has to forward to the Pay & Accounts Officer Form 5 and Form 7 duly completed with a covering letter in Form 8 along with service book of the Government servant duly completed up-to-date and any other documents relied upon for the verification of service, not later than six months before the date of retirement of the Government servant.

E.3 Who is to authorize the pension?

On receipt of pension papers from Head of Office, the Pay & Accounts Officer concerned will, after applying requisite checks, assess the amount of pension and issue the Pension Payment Order (both halves of Pension Payment Order, i.e. disburser’s portion and pensioner’s portion) not later than one month in advance of the date of retirement of the Government servant with forwarding authority letter, duly ink-signed and embossed, to Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO) who in turn will generate on computer a Special Seal Authority on the basis of details given in the Pension Payment Order and authority letter of the Pay & Accounts Officer and forward both halves of PPO with Special Seal Authority to the Central Pension Processing Centre (CPPC) of the concerned authorized Bank. All records will be maintained in the CPPC and the disbursing branch, will make the payments to the pensioner on authorization of payment of pension by the CPPC. The CPPC however is only the back office for processing pensions, all pension related problems/grievances of the pensioners will continue to be handled by the concerned paying branch as before.

The Pay & Accounts Officer while issuing the pension authorization will forward one copy of the pension calculation sheet (out of three received by him from the Head of Office) as certified by the Head of Office and countersigned by him (Pay & Accounts Officer) to the pensioner along with the intimation of his having sent the pension payment authority/PPO to the CPAO. In case it is found from the pension calculation sheet that pension has been fixed incorrectly, the matter may be taken-up with the Head of Office. PAO concerned, if necessary, will issue an amendment authority letter to Central Pension Accounting Office for onward transmission to the CPPC to carry out necessary amendments in both halves of PPO.