Government of India continue to take various initiatives and measures facilitating the promotion of welfare of the pensioners as well as relief for mitigating the hardship/distress of families of the deceased Central Government servants. These include the following :

• Setting-up of a Standing Committee of Voluntary Agencies (SCOVA) to help mobilize voluntary efforts to supplement the Government action as well as to serve as a useful forum for providing a feedback for the policy initiatives and implementation of welfare programmes for pensioners.
• Establishment of an Information and Facilitation Counter (IFC) for the pensioners, in Lok Nayak Bhawan at New Delhi to provide information about the pension-related services, schemes and procedures, and to facilitate not only the lodging of their complaints/applications but also to provide the status on the disposal of their complaints as a single-window service.
• Setting-up of a separate fund (Compassionate Fund) for providing relief to the families of Government servants if they are left in indigent circumstances on account of premature death of the Government servant (upon whom they depend for support) and do not receive any other form of death benefits, such as Contributory Provident Fund, Gratuity or Family Pension.
• Introduction of Family Pension Scheme allowing for payment of pension for life for the family of a Central Government servant who dies while in service.
• Introduction of the scheme for Payment of Pension to Central Government Civil Pensioners through Authorized Banks to ensure a speedy and timely disbursal of pension using the vast net work of their branches.
• Simplification of procedures to cut delays in the processing and disbursal of pensionary and retirement benefits.
• Liberalization of provisions relating to ex-gratia lumpsum payment to the families of Government servants who die while in service under certain circumstances.
• Liberalization of pensionary awards in the case of death/disability to the Government servants while in service under certain circumstances.
• Amendments in relevant rules to facilitate granting of enhanced pension and retirement benefits, enhancing the maximum amount of gratuity to Rs. 20 lakhs, increasing the minimum amount of pension to Rs. 9000, increasing the limit for commutation to 40%, treating ‘Dearness Allowance’ as ‘emoluments’ for retirement/death gratuity etc.)
• Revising the rate of family pension uniformly as 30% of pay last drawn, and granting uniform percentage of pension as ‘dearness relief’ for both the serving and the retired Government servants.
• Making dependent parents, widowed/divorced daughters/unmarried daughter eligible for family pension.
• Simplification of the present procedure of providing medical certificate every five years in the case of physically/mentally permanently challenged children for life and every three years in the case of temporarily challenged every year to once in a life time and once in every five years respectively from a medical board. Guardians of physically/mentally challenged family pensioners to provide non employment certificate once in a year as against the existing provision of every month.

Note: Pension schemes are applicable to the Government servants appointed before 1-1-2004.