When a pensioner passes away, the nominee often faces an emotionally difficult and bureaucratically complex process to claim the dues that are rightfully theirs. One Moneylife reader recently shared the gruelling eight-month journey of trying to claim her late mother’s lifetime arrears (LTA) from the State Bank of India (SBI), after her pension account had already been closed. What unfolded was a maze of miscommunication, lack of awareness and red tape that involved four entities—SBI, the central pension processing centre (CPPC), the central pension accounting office (CPAO), and the pension sanctioning authority (PSA). Her experience highlights how ordinary nominees, especially those without persistence or corporate experience, are often left helpless and misled in their attempts to secure what is due.
Here is her experience…
Subject: Steps to get the LTA if you are the nominee of a deceased BARC pensioner after you have closed their pension account in SBI
The following is what took place with respect to my mother’s LTA and what one needs to do. I am her sole nominee.
1. I received a letter from CPAO, under the Union ministry of finance (MoF) informing me that my mother’s LTA has been released. A copy of this letter may have been sent to SBI's pension office (CPPC – central pension processing centre).
2. After receiving this letter, as a default move, I went to the SBI branch where my mother had her pension account. Obviously, after her demise, I had closed the account.
3. The branch had no clue what should be done next. When I approached the branch head, he told me that the bank was just an intermediary. “We can give you the money only if we receive it,” was his answer. There was no attempt to guide me to the central pension processing centre or CPPC office at Belapur in Navi Mumbai. It seemed like a dead-end for a while.
4. After this, I approached the BARC accounts office, and they also claimed that they had done the needful and nothing more needs to be done by them.
5. This made me go back to the SBI branch again, and by then they had a new branch manager, who, on observation from outside her cabin, seemed helpful and quick to resolve issues. During this visit, a senior staff member directed me to CPPC. I had not heard of the central pension processing centre - CPPC before this.
6. After a personal visit and multiple emails to CPPC, I got no response as to what my next steps should be. I then approached the new branch manager from SBI again and requested her to speak to the lady I was emailing at CPPC, hoping that an SBI person talking to another SBI person might work. This elicited a response from CPPC, and I was told to connect with the PSA (pension sanctioning authority – in this case, BARC, and in simple terms, the organisation the pensioner worked for) and request them to write to the CPAO confirming that this LTA was due to me and me only.
7. Now this is how it works:
a. SBI is an intermediary, whether the branch or the central pension processing centre- CPPC
b. The bank will release the money only after it gets an ok from the central pension accounting office (CPAO)
c. For CPAO to give an approval, it must get a confirmation from BARC, the pension sanctioning authority- PSA, that I am the only nominee
d. Please note that this nomination is different from the nomination in a pension account. This nomination refers to the one that the pensioner has submitted to his/ her office at the time of retirement, and this information is available in the PPO – a pension book that each pensioner holds. There is also a unique PPO number attached to each pensioner
8. By the way, nobody at the SBI branch knew what a PSA is. I googled it. Anyway, now that the process was clearer to me, I requested the BARC accounts to furnish my PPO nomination details, my mother’s death certificate and my bank account details to CPAO.
9. The accounting office (CPAO) then instructed the processing centre (CPPC) to release the money. Now, at this point, if you think you can sit back and relax, then you are highly mistaken. The SBI CPPC is a black hole and you have to find interfaces to get into it and figure out what is the status of your payment. Be ready to intensify your follow-up. SBI CPPC has one common email ID for all communication. They do not reply to emails. If you go to their office in Belapur, they will make you sit at the reception, and the officer in charge may decide to meet you, or speak with you on intercom, or you may end up communicating through a letter via the office boys or security guards there. They do not have the basic courtesy to meet people who go all the way to get what is due to them.
10. The right person will meet you only if your tone becomes escalatory and contextually confrontational, and this is what happened to me after multiple emails and a few physical follow-ups. I went armed with hard copies of all the communication to and from them and from the other entities involved – CPAO and the PSA.
11. A senior manager met me once he had probably realised that this case had to be resolved now. He did apologise, but there was another twist in the tale. SBI CPPC releases LTAs (I do not know about other payouts) only to an SBI savings account. I didn’t have one.
12. Now opening an account in SBI is a new task. Anyway, I did manage to open one. Now, after this account is open and active, you need to get a ‘recovery letter’ signed and stamped at the branch. This letter allows CPPC to recover money from your account (after release of LTA) in case they find a calculation error in the future.
13. Now, SBI's processing centre or CPPC does not honour the new SBI savings account details and the recovery letter coming from your email ID linked to the account. The bank branch where you have opened the account needs to email these details to SBI CPPC. Getting all this done in an over-crowded SBI branch needs the patience of a saint. Sit there and get it done.
14. The senior manager at SBI CPPC shared his mobile number with me, and he was in touch with me and confirmed to me that all the requirements were now completed.
15. One fine afternoon I got the credit and it was much more than what I had expected. I had tears in my eyes. It had taken me eight months after I actively started pursuing this money. I may not have gone after this if it were my money. But because it was my mother’s, I did not give up.
This whole episode has four entities. Some of them you cannot reach out to directly as a layperson, and some others will try to dissuade you and blatantly lie to you about the possibility of getting this money. I observe that the intention to guide nominees does not even exist in this system. We are a burden and best misguided and quickly demotivated.
My corporate background helped me in writing emails professionally with varying tonalities, in physical follow-ups that ranged from requests to assertiveness. I am not sure how many people will be able to complete what I did.
Hence this note. I hope it helps.
I also realise that it may be a good idea to inform the PSA in case of death to stop the pension, but not close the pension account in a hurry. Not sure if that is a possibility, but one can try and save oneself from this miserable red tape.
Moneylife sent an email to SBI seeking a response on the process for nominees of deceased pensioners to receive the same. Till writing the story, we have not received any reply from SBI. We will update this story with SBI’s response as and when we receive it.
Had to first write to bombay dyeing office who were very helpful and then after completing all documentation, LIC pension office, became incommunicado, will not take calls nor reply to emails. Repeted request to various levels in LIC was not giving any results and finalluy marked a copy of the mail to IRDA and very next day reply that money is credited to bank, came. There are some good people in any organisation who help, but there are also some who delay or refuse to help.
How many mails did he wrote to CPAO and BARC and which official of these entities shared their personal number with him ??