Punjab Govt doubles social security pension to Rs 1,500

Punjab Social Aspects of state

Decks have been cleared to increase social security monthly pension from Rs 750 to Rs 1,500 from July 1 with the issuance of a notification by the Social Security, Women and Child Development Department.
Social Security Minister Aruna Chaudhary said: “The notification has paved way for doubling the pension for old age, handicapped persons, widows and destitute women, besides dependent children.”
With a view to doubling the monthly pension from Rs 750 to Rs 1,500, a budgetary outlay of Rs.4,000 crore had been allocated during 2021-22, signifying an increase of 72 per cent from 2020-21 budgetary expenditure of Rs 2,320 crore.
Meanwhile, the social security pensions amounting to Rs 2,089 crore were disbursed in 2019-20 and Rs 2,277 crore in 2020-21, which is three-fold of what was provided by the previous government in 2016-17 (Rs 747 crore).
A total of 25.55 lakh beneficiaries, including 13 lakh from the Scheduled Caste category, have been given pension during 2020-21.