7th Pay Commission: Read DA and DR announcements for Central employees, pensioners

Nearly 1.2 crore Central government employees including the pensioners would soon get Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) benefits under the 7th Pay Commission (7th CPC), which were halted since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country. According to the reports, the increased hikes in both Dearness Allowance and DR would reflect in the salary of the Central government employees in September 2021. Earlier, some unconfirmed reports suggested that the employees would get the benefits from July this year. However, it was refuted by the Ministry citing, "the viral order was fake".

Here are the latest announcements made by the government regarding the Central government employees:

House Building Advance (HBA) benefit will continue till March 2022

In order to provide assistance in building their own houses under the CPC, the central government, in June 2020, had announced to provide an HBA benefit to all the Central government employees. Under the CPC pension scheme, the basic interest rate charged is 7.9 per cent and would remain available till 31st March 2022. 

Extension of time-limit for submission of Travelling Allowance (TA)

With the new announcement under the 7th pay commission, retired Central government employees can now submit the Travelling Allowance (TA) claims from 60 days to 180 days. The latest order will be effective from June 15 this year. The extension of the time limit from 60 days to 180 days will certainly help the ex-employees that were earlier considered to be 'hectic' for the workers.

Death claims will be simplified for the receipt of the family

As of now, families of the ex-employees have to face a tough time in securing pensions, in case of the death of a retired employee. With the new announcements, Union Minister Dr Jitendraa Singh assured that a provisional family pension will be sanctioned immediately on receipt of the claim for family pension. He added that the provision of transient pension will secure the family till all the formalities or procedural requirements be completed.

Ex-employees to get pension notification on social media platform Whatsapp 

In the new direction, the Centre directed the banks to issue pension slips via SMS, Whatsapp and e-mail on the registered credentials of the pensioners. The action will be effective from July 1st 2021. The recent move will also simplify the process where the number of pensioners has to make several bank trips.