Atal Pension Yojana

Atal Pension Yojana (APY) addresses the old age income security of the working poor. It is focused on the unorganized sector workers.
It encourages the workers in the unorganised sector to voluntarily save for their retirement. The Government had launched the scheme with effect from 1st June, 2015.

Any citizen of India can join the APY scheme. The age of the subscriber should be between 18-40 years. The contribution levels would vary and would be low if a subscriber joins early and increases if she joins late.
The benefits of the scheme will arise to the subscribers on attaining the age of 60 years.

Fixed pension for the subscribers ranging between Rs.1000 to Rs. 5000, if s/he joins and contributes between the age of 18 years and 40 years.
The same pension is payable to Spouse after death of Subscriber.
Return of indicative pension wealth to nominees after death of spouse.
In case of premature death of subscriber (death before 60 years of age), spouse of the subscriber can continue contribution to APY account of the subscriber, for the remaining vesting period, till the original subscriber would have attained the age of 60 years.
The minimum pension would be guaranteed by the Government, i.e., if the accumulated corpus based on contributions earns a lower than estimated return on investment and is inadequate to provide the minimum guaranteed pension, the Central Government would fund such inadequacy. Alternatively, if the returns on investment are higher, the subscribers would get enhanced pensionary benefits.

APY is administered by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).

Why in News?

Total enrollment under Atal Pension Yojana crossed 5.20 crore mark as on 31 March 2023.
The scheme enrolled more than 1.19 crore new subscribers in FY 2022-23 as compared to 99 lakh in the last financial year, depicting a growth of more than 20%.

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