Kottayam: Welfare fund boards will soon stop distributing family and disability pensions. The decision was made in line with the new directive from the state government. Thus, the beneficiaries of these pensions will not receive the monthly amount from October.
Members of the board of directors of the social welfare fund who suffer from serious illnesses receive a disability pension. While the family pension is distributed to the families of deceased members. The Welfare Fund Board granted these two pensions using public funds allocated for the distribution of pensions to retired workers.
In the new directive, the Ministry of Finance prohibited councils from using the fund for purposes other than pensions for retired workers.
Welfare fund boards distributed monthly pensions of Rs 1600 and Rs 1000 respectively as disability pensions and family pensions. At present, various provident fund boards pay these pensions to over 23,600 beneficiaries. People with cancer, kidney and liver disease, and those who became disabled as a result of accidents received disability pensions.
The government has allocated funds for the distribution of pensions within the framework of the welfare fund boards. The pension fund is sanctioned according to the list submitted by the councils. Under the new directive, the boards of social welfare funds have been asked to confirm that recipients of disability and family pensions are not on the list. If a board is found using the fund for such pensions, strict actions, including charging interest on the fund, will be initiated, the finance department warned.
At the same time, councils are allowed to distribute these pensions from their own funds. But most welfare fund boards are unable to raise funds for disability and family pensions.
