*ACTIONS BY RECENT RETIREES THEY MUST TAKE AFTER RETIREMENT ASAP*
1. It is a fact of life that we, while in service never bothered about our Retired Phase of Life. We may have been very good professionally Wwith long tails of qualifications, however, are virtually NIX on the issues which bug us all day in and day out during the retired life. During service one had a functional office as well as administrative support which just vanished in thin air, in a short while after one’s farewell to arms.
2. Are you, for sure, aware as to what all forms you filled up and sent to AG’s branch six months before your superannuation. Wasn’t it your Head Clerk who liaised with another unit to copy all these documents from the ones belonging to another recent retiree. Our ignorance would surely lead to many issues which will crop up in a few years. We will then be bash our head here and there to rectify what could have been done easily immediately after retirement. (CONTD)
3. We therefore outline few check points here which have been carved out of our experience of years, kindly act accordingly for the sake of your family. First and fore most open a new diary with sufficient leaves as your Pension Diary for noting down various points including the location of various documents, just in case we are not on the scene any more.
4. Prior to your retirement lot many letters from PCDAs as also AG’s Branch , Service HQs came on various issues. Keep them in a separate file and keep it at a safe place. Remove all sorts of faltoo papers from this file, simply retain your papers so sent and the letters received. Do not keep the Original PPO and the Original Extended AGIF letters in this file but keep their photo copies in this.
5. The Pension Payment Order (PPO) in Original is most Important it gives the details of your last pay, Grade, pension, family pension etc. Maintain a separate folder for the original documents for future use and keep the same in safe place which is easily reachable and know to your family. Donot laminate the Original PPO. Safe guard the PPO and do not fold it. The PPO has to last yours as well as your spouses life time. No replacement for the original will be available to you. You must keep a separate routine correspondence file where photo copies of the PPO should be kept and used for reference. Do the same for all the Corrg – PPOs you will receive in future.
6. Go through all the boxes in your PPO and understand the meaning of each box. Check following;-
a) Your Pensioner ID. its a unique number given by the PCDA(Pension).
b) Check your last emoluments and dates.
c) See that the pension being given is correct and there is no error.
d) Qualifying service as recorded in PPO must be correct, any doubt, first read the details in this site under Qualifying Service and if any error is noted, immediately approach the Army HQ and PCDA for correction.
e) Name and date of birth of your spouse must be as per her supporting ID proofs like Passport, Pan card and the spellings must match completely. Any mistake in this can deny her Family Pension till it is corrected by court orders.
f) Check Pension Amount Commuted and the residual pension. Note the month after 15 years when full pension will be restored. It will be the same month in which you received your first pension.
g) In case one retires just at the beginning of any any CPC a new corrg-PPO will be issued in few days as and when CPC is implemented, Keep a note in your pension Diary.
h) The pension paying agency bank (PDA) and your account number be checked on the PPO, Ensure following is known and done:-
i) Know the bank CPPC, check from your branch the mailing address phone number and the email ID of your CPC.
ii) The pension account must be joint with your spouse. in most cases wives donot bother to operate the same, hence keep a photo copy of the acct opening form where she had put her signatures. Alternatively in your pension diary keep a smaple of her signatures as record.
iii) Make barest minimum transactions from this account, Open another account for day to day routine transactions. You will need the passbook entries even after 20 years of your retirement. It is to ensure that your passbook covers larger period before it is closed.
iv) The pension passbook is very important and must not be loosly kept.
v) Retain all old Passbooks of pension acct. If need be keep scanned copies in cloud.
vi) it may also be worthwhile to obtain your year wise statement from the bank even if one has to shell out some money for the same.
vii) Ensure all nominations are in place as far as your bank acct is concerned.
viii) For retirees after jan 2016 Aadhaar Number should also be mentioned.
7, Extended Army Group Insurance. The AGI would have retained some money as one time subsciption to give you extended life insurance. It has an expiry date. This is a very important document and must be kept in Original documents folder along with PPO.
8. Be aware of your pension entitlements from day one and update your self with any changes as they are announced. Please rmeber that neither the PCDA nor the Bank is bothered about your pension. Donot show carelessness in this.
NOTE :- We have seen many pensioners suffering at the hands f the banks. An ignorant pensioner is NO BECHARA, and don’t be one.
9. The service HQ would have issued a small service book giving details f your service, retain it in ORIGINAL DOCUMENTs FOLDER.
10. Income Tax. Ensure you have filed your last ITR with your last ITO and hve obtained the NO DUES Certificate from the ITO. You will be filing your next return at the place where you are settled.
i) Retain all ITRs and assessments received on line.
ii) Quickly learn to file your Return on line, its simple donot bank on CAs.
iii) Disability element and the service elements are tax free in case you have disability of min 20%.
iv) In case you are decorated with SM (Gallantry) or above, your pension in Tax free. There are some formalities to be observed so be aware of these.
11. Ensure nominations for the Life time Arrears of Pension and Platinum Grant (AGIF) are in order and in place. you can read more about them in this site, go through The Index of the Site to reach the required post here.
12. We are sure you have already received your canteen as well as ECHS Cards, do update yourself about your entitlements and note them down in your diary. We have covered ECHS related issues in our blog site for your reference,
13. Donot get allured by Banks and agents foir investing your money on market related issues, you are likely to be taken for a ride. Do not worry about the interest part it may be less but go for Govt Securities. You must secure your Capital in the long run.
14. There are likely many legal issues which you must be aware of. The first and foremost is your WILL. Remember without a WILL from you the spouse will share your assets along with children.
Write down your will on a piece of paper in hand JUST NOW sign it as also get two witnesses to sign as witness to your signatures. Even a WILL in manuscript is valid in court. You can have the same typed etc etc. As per my Lawyer “ALL FOR MY WIFE” is a good enough WILL. Any way you can see the sample WILL on our site. Do not divulge the contents of your WILL to the beneficiaries. Do not delay it any further. In the absence of a WILL the family is left in total lurch. See that all your property papers are 100% in order and ready for sale or transfer when the need arises.
15. Keep full control on your Finances and Assets, just do not loosen it during your life time, if you do, in 99% probability, you may find your self on road side or at best in a OLd Age home, at the critical juncture in life. Love your children, help them when in need but let the “MOH MAYA” not overtake your better sense, let them inherit your assets after both of you ae gone.
16. This compilation is not exhaustive, there are still many more issues which keep cropping, we do endure to update from time to time.
KEEP YOURSELF UPDATED – On Pension, ECHS, Income Tax, Finances incl Investments, Legal Issues like Property and move able Assets, Your WILL and other documents. You will find many e-books, pamphlets and documents which we have retained on our site, take time to go through.
“INFORMATION IS POWER”