Pension scheme: Delhi govt begins door-to-door biometric verification of 4.4 lakh senior citizen beneficiaries
Pension scheme: The Delhi state government has started door-to-door biometric verification of about 4.4 lakh senior citizens, PTI reported citing officials. The drive, which began on Sunday, aims to identify ineligible old age pension scheme beneficiaries over three months of checks, it added.
Notably, the verification process was to begin earlier, but it was halted as permission for Aadhaar authentication of the beneficiaries via a third party was not allowed, as per the report. Now, the third party is proceeding after receiving permission, a senior Delhi government functionary told the news agency.
To qualify for the Delhi government’s old-age pension scheme, the applicants must be 60 years or older, having annual family income of less than ₹1 lakh, be a resident of Delhi for at least five years and not receive financial assistance or pensions from any other government source.
Verification to conclude in three months, 20-25% vacancies expected
The functionary added that the full exercise is expected to occur over three months and they expect “to create 20-25% vacancies out of the total 4.4 lakh beneficiaries after weeding out the deceased and duplicate beneficiaries getting other government assistance besides the old age pension”.
Delhi government, at present, provides a monthly pension of ₹2,000 to senior citizens aged between 60 and 69 years, and ₹2,500 for senior citizens aged 70 years and above.
Early in 2026, the state’s Social Welfare Department signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Common Service Centre (CSC), which operates around 6,000 centres across the city for the survey. It is this CSC network that will now assist the department in carrying out the verification process at beneficiaries‘ residences.
What can pensioners expect?
For the duration of the verification exercise:
MCD considers one-time regularisation
In August, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) said it is considering one-time regularisation of contractual employees and extending entry-pay, dearness allowance (DA), leaves and other benefits to them, PTI reported.
The MCD is examining possibility of one-time regularisation of eligible contractual employees working against vacant sanctioned posts, the report added. This comes after Mayor Pravesh Wahi issued directions to civic body Commissioner Sanjeev Khirwar on 31 July.
Mayor Wahi’s directions cover contractual employees directly recruited by the Delhi Municipal Corporation who have worked with the civic authority for several years against sanctioned vacant Group A, B and C posts. The eligibility will be scrutinised against recruitment rules applicable to the corresponding posts, it added.
The assessment is expected to consider whether the initial appointments of these contractual employees were conducted through a regular process and did not involve irregularity or illegality.
