8th Pay Commission: Will Your Family Get

Government employees and their families are pushing for better pension payouts under the 8th Pay Commission. Key demands include scrapping the 30% family pension cap and restoring the Old Pension Scheme. Here is what this means for your retirement planning.

Here's what happened: Staff unions representing central government employees have raised formal demands with the Cabinet Secretary to overhaul pension rules under the 8th Pay Commission.. A core demand is scrapping the rule that limits family pension to just 30% of a deceased employee's notional pay — which leaves many dependents with very little monthly income.. Employee unions are also pushing for restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), which guaranteed a fixed monthly payout, unlike the current market-linked National Pension System (NPS)..

What you should do: Calculate your current NPS corpus projection using the NPS Trust calculator at npstrust.org.in — check if your retirement income will be enough for your family.. If you are a central or state government employee, check whether your state has already reverted to OPS — several states like Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan have done so at various points.. Private sector employees: use this moment to review your own family income protection — buy a term life insurance plan so your dependents are not dependent on any government decision..

Even if OPS is not restored, NPS subscribers can allocate up to 75% in equity funds during their early working years to maximise corpus growth — most government employees leave it at the default conservative mix and lose out on lakhs.