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All You Need To Know About Atal Pension Scheme
06 Dec 2020, 05:19 PM IST 
Workers aged between 18 and 40 years can enroll in the Atal Pension scheme from designated post offices.
- Eligibility: Workers in the age group of 18-40 years can enroll in the Atal Pension scheme. The applicant needs to have a savings account, in a bank or a post office. Each subscriber can only have one Atal Pension account.
- Pension Amount: Currently, the Atal Pension Scheme provides five fixed monthly pension options: Rs 1,000, Rs 2,000, Rs 3,000, Rs 4,000 and Rs 5,000.
- Contribution: The amount selected at the time of registration is deducted from the subscriber's account on a monthly, quarterly or half-yearly basis. The amount varies from Rs 42 and Rs 1,454 per month. The first instalment is deducted from the subscriber's savings account at the time of registration.
- Mode Of Payment: The contributions are paid at chosen intervals - monthly, quarterly or half yearly - through auto debits from the linked savings account.
- Guaranteed Minimum Pension: The Atal Pension scheme guarantees a minimum pension, which means that the government covers any shortfall in the the actual realised returns in comparison to assumed returns over the period of contribution. On the other hand, any higher returns are paid to the subscriber.
- How To Operate Atal Pension Scheme Account: After successful registration, the subscriber only has to maintain the instalment amount in the linked savings account on the due dates to ensure operability.
- Delayed Contribution: In case a subscriber does not have sufficient funds in the savings account on the due date, the APY scheme provides an option to pay a delayed instalment along with overdue interest. The contribution is paid the next month along with overdue interest, which is Rs 1 per month for every Rs 100 for each delayed monthly contribution.
- Continuous Default: In case of continuous default, account maintenance charges and other related charges are deducted from the Atal Pension account on a periodic basis. Once the account balance in the corpus reaches zero, the account is closed immediately.
- Flexibility: It is possible to switch to a lower or higher amount of monthly contribution under certain circumstances. This window is available only once a year, in the month of April.
- Amount Of Contribution: The contribution amount varies for subscribers of different age groups. Here's a list mentioning indicative monthly contributions required by different age groups:
| Age Of Entry | Years Of Contribution | Monthly Pension Of Rs 1,000 | Monthly Pension Of Rs 2,000 | Monthly Pension Of Rs. 3,000 | Monthly Pension Of Rs. 4,000 | Monthly Pension Of Rs. 5,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 | 42 | 42 | 84 | 126 | 168 | 210 |
| 19 | 41 | 46 | 92 | 138 | 183 | 228 |
| 20 | 40 | 50 | 100 | 150 | 198 | 248 |
| 21 | 39 | 54 | 108 | 162 | 215 | 269 |
| 22 | 38 | 59 | 117 | 177 | 234 | 292 |
| 23 | 37 | 64 | 127 | 192 | 254 | 318 |
| 24 | 36 | 70 | 139 | 208 | 277 | 346 |
| 25 | 35 | 76 | 151 | 226 | 301 | 376 |
| 26 | 34 | 82 | 164 | 246 | 327 | 409 |
| 27 | 33 | 90 | 178 | 268 | 356 | 446 |
| 28 | 32 | 97 | 194 | 292 | 388 | 485 |
| 29 | 31 | 106 | 212 | 318 | 423 | 529 |
| 30 | 30 | 116 | 231 | 347 | 462 | 577 |
| 31 | 29 | 126 | 252 | 379 | 504 | 630 |
| 32 | 28 | 138 | 276 | 414 | 551 | 689 |
| 33 | 27 | 151 | 302 | 453 | 602 | 752 |
| 34 | 26 | 165 | 330 | 495 | 659 | 824 |
| 35 | 25 | 181 | 362 | 543 | 722 | 902 |
| 36 | 24 | 198 | 396 | 594 | 792 | 990 |
| 37 | 23 | 218 | 436 | 654 | 870 | 1,087 |
| 38 | 22 | 240 | 480 | 720 | 957 | 1,196 |
| 39 | 21 | 264 | 528 | 792 | 1,054 | 1,318 |
| 40 | 20 | 291 | 582 | 873 | 1,164 | 1,454 |
| (Source: nsdl.co.in) | ||||||
