What is Atal Pension Yojana (APY)?

Atal Pension Yojana (APY) was launched on 9th May 2015. The Savings Bank account holder in the age group of 18 to 40 years in any bank or post office is eligible to subscribe at Atal Pension Yojana (APY). The subscriber has to make monthly contributions of the defined amount until he or she is 60 years of age. The contributions differ, based on the pension amount chosen by the subscriber. After completion of 60 years of age, the subscriber would receive the guaranteed minimum monthly pension of Rs.1,000 or Rs.2,000 or Rs.3,000 or Rs.4,000 or Rs.5,000 till his death. The minimum pension is guaranteed by the Government of India. In case the accumulated corpus based on contributions earns a lower than estimated return on investment, then the Central Government would fund such inadequacy to pay minimum guaranteed pension. On the other hand, if the returns on investment are higher, the subscribers would get enhanced pension benefits.

It is mandatory to provide nomination and spouse details in the APY account. The nominee has to be someone else other than the spouse of the subscriber. The pension corpus, as accumulated at age 60 of the subscriber would be returned to the nominee of the subscriber after his/her death. In the event of unfortunate death of the subscriber before the age of 60 years, the spouse of the subscriber is eligible to continue contributing to APY account of the subscriber, for the remaining vesting period, till the original subscriber would have attained the age of 60 years. The spouse of the subscriber is eligible to receive the same pension amount as that of the subscriber until the death of the spouse. After the death of the subscriber and his/her spouse, the nominee of the subscriber is entitled to receive the pension corpus accumulated till the age of 60 years of subscriber.

Switching facility to upgrade the pension amount either to increase the pension amount of a subscriber or to downgrade the pension amount is available once in a year during the month of April. Change in frequency of contribution e.g. from quarterly contribution to monthly contribution or from half yearly contribution to quarterly contribution etc. may be done after submission of written request by the APY subscriber to the APY-SP branch.