Octogenarian makes the link, but in vain

If pensions have been stopped for those who have not linked their Aadhaar, some who have updated Aadhaar details have also not received pension.

“When I enquired at my bank, they said they do not have any information. They asked me to check with the PF office. Even if you call the PF office, no one answers,” octogenarian P.S. Vaidyanathan said. There are 50 PF pensioners who draw pension from my bank branch, and none of them has received pension, he added.

In November, Mr. Vaidyanathan along with his sister-in-law went to the PF office to provide biometric details after the PF office through mail asked him to provide them. “I have linked Aadhaar to my PF account. I have given thumb impression and iris scanning along with my bank details. After I updated my biometrics, I also received the SMS thanking me for successfully registering for life certificate on the same evening,” he said, adding that his sister-in- law too has not received pension.

When he didn’t receive his pension in June, he began initiating enquiries.

Additional Central PF Commissioner V. Vijaykumar agreed that there could be such cases as documents have to be validated through the UIDAI and NIC gateways.

“There are chances that the spelling of the name in the PF account could be different from that on the Aadhaar card. In such cases, the system does not validate, and currently manual intervention is very limited. However, these issues can be addressed. In rare cases, we have also instructed field offices to accept physical life certificate,” he said.