Page 3 - Social Security

EPFO board likely to decide interest rate for FY23 on March 25, 26

Sources said that the interest rate is unlikely to go below 8 per cent level amid a rising interest rate scenario across the globe

FinMin meets private sector bankers, reviews progress of flagship schemes

The finance ministry on Tuesday held a meeting with private sector lenders to review progress made by them under the flagship financial inclusion and social security schemes. "Dr. Vivek Joshi, Secretary DFS chaired a meeting today with the representatives of Private Sector Banks, Small Finance Banks and Payment Banks to review the progress made by them under various Financial Inclusion initiatives (PMJDY, PMJJBY, PMSBY, APY, PM SVANidhi, etc.)," Department of Financial Services said in a tweet. Last week, Joshi met heads of public sector banks and urged them to achieve targets under various schemes for current financial year. During the meeting, progress of various social security (Jan Suraksha) schemes, including Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY), Atal Pension Yojana (APY), Pradhan Mantri MUDRA and Prime Minister Street Vendor's AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PMSVANidhi), and Agri credit etc, we

Washington county mistakenly releases nearly half million partial SSNs

A county in Washington inadvertently released nearly half a million partial Social Security Numbers when responding to a routine public records request in December, according to county officials. The Pierce County Auditor's Office, which mistakenly released the sensitive data, said in a news release that the human error was quickly spotted and that the person who received the SSN digits deleted them within two hours. The requester had not asked for the personal information. First let me say that I am incredibly sorry that this happened, Pierce County Auditor Linda Farmer said in statement. Farmer added that this was not a targeted hack, and that "we have taken steps to ensure it does not happen again. The Social Security number information was included in a routine request for publicly available voter registration data, which typically includes names, addresses and birth dates. Personally identifiable information, including Social Security number information, which can be used to ..

Union Budget 2023: Experts don't expect surprises in social sector outlay

While experts believe that provision for various social schemes may go up, the sector is unlikely to see any major announcements

Focus on labour reforms, social security for informal workers in 2023

Expanding the social security coverage for unorganised workers and pursuing states to make rules for labour codes will be the key priorities for the government in 2023, as efforts continue to strengthen the country's labour market. With India set to host G-20 leaders' summit for the first time next year, the Union labour ministry will also pursue key employment-related agenda touching upon global skill gaps, gig and platform economy, sustainable financing of social security schemes and other issues. "Our efforts will be to cover a large number of unorganised sector workers under the ambit of social security schemes in 2023 and provide them with eligible benefits online. We want to make processes paperless in the ministry," Union Labour and Employment Minister Bhupender Yadav told PTI. The four labour codes on social security, industrial relations, wages, and Occupational Safety Health & Working Conditions (OSH) have already been cleared by Parliament but they can be implemented ...

Low Payments, no respect: Why quality of free legal aid in districts is bad

About 20% of legal aid counsels identified a lack of infrastructure, such as designated chambers for interacting with clients

Ahead of budget, economists demand increase in social security pension

Ahead of the Union Budget 2023-24, 51 eminent economists have written to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and demanded an increase in social security pensions and an adequate provision for maternity benefits. The signatory of the letter includes Jean Drze (honorary professor, Delhi School of Economics), Pranab Bardhan (professor emeritus of economics, University of California Berkeley), R Nagaraj (professor of economics, IGIDR, Mumbai), Reetika Khera (professor of economics, IIT, Delhi), and Sukhadeo Thorat (professor emeritus, JNU), among others. "This is a follow-up to our letters of 20 December 2017 and 21 December 2018 (addressed to your predecessor, Shri Arun Jaitley), where we tried to flag two priorities for the next Union Budget: an increase in social security pensions, and adequate provision for maternity benefits. "Since both proposals were ignored, we are writing again, well in advance of the next Budget, with the same recommendations." the letter said. According to t

Centre to soon merge social security contributions by small firms: Report

Currently, the companies have to make separate payments towards the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC)

EPFO aims to invest more in equity for younger members, expand horizon

At present, EPFO is allowed to invest between 5-15 per cent of its investible deposits in equity instruments irrespective of the age or risk profile of its members

ESIC-run social security scheme adds 1.46 mn new members in Aug: Report

Around 14.62 lakh new members joined the ESIC-run social security scheme in August 2022, according to official data released on Tuesday. The latest data is part of a report -- Payroll Reporting in India: An Employment Perspective - August 2022 -- released by the National Statistical Office (NSO). It showed that the gross new enrolments with Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) rose to 1.49 crore in 2021-22, from 1.15 crore in 2020-21. It was 1.51 crore in 2019-20 and 1.49 crore in 2018-19. From September 2017 to March 2018, around 83.35 lakh new subscribers joined the ESIC scheme. The report said gross new enrolments with ESIC from September 2017 to August 2022 were 7.22 crore. The NSO report is based on the payroll data of new subscribers of various social security schemes run by ESIC, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA). According to the report, net new enrolments with retirement fund body

Punjab govt decides to restore old pension scheme for its employees

The Punjab government on Friday took an in-principle decision to restore the old pension scheme for its employees. Giving a Diwali gift, the government has decided to implement the old pension scheme, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann announced after a meeting of the state cabinet here. "We have taken in-principle decision to this effect in the cabinet meeting. This will benefit lakhs of employees...We are bringing Punjab under the old pension scheme," he said. Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said that employees will be given the option to join the old pension scheme. Mann, a month ago, had said that his government is considering restoring the scheme for government employees. Restoration of the old pension scheme, which was discontinued in 2004, has been one of the major demands of state government employees. In August last year, Cheema, a senior Aam Aadmi Party leader, had promised to restore the old pension system if the party was voted to power in Punjab.

ESIC to expand its reach in over 750 districts of country: Labour Minister

The 350 bedded hospital will be spread over 9.5 acres and would entail an expenditure of Rs 500 crore

Need to improve employment conditions for strong recovery: Bhupender Yadav

Union Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav on Wednesday underlined the need for improving employment conditions of workers for a strong and resilient recovery post pandemic. Yadav attended the G20 Labour and Employment Ministers' meeting at Bali, Indonesia on September 13-14, 2022. He spoke about the importance of countries coming together for promotion of responsive and robust policies relating to employment generation, social protection, skilling and formalization, in the post-pandemic period for ensuring a more resilient, equitable and sustainable recovery. He also commended Indonesia for selecting the priority areas critical in the ever-changing world of work, a labour ministry statement said. These priority areas are labour market integration of persons with disabilities, sustainable growth and productivity in human capacity development through strengthening community-based vocational training. Other priority areas are promoting entrepreneurship and supporting small and medium ...

Social security pension now quicker with auto-approval mechanism

In this new auto-approved mechanism, the beneficiaries receive the pension payment order (PPO) immediately after linking their Janaadhar card with the scheme.

ESIC-run social security scheme adds 1.5 mn new members in June: Data

Around 15.47 lakh new members joined the ESIC-run social security scheme in June 2022, according to official data released on Thursday. The latest data is part of a report -- Payroll Reporting in India: An Employment Perspective - June 2022 -- released by the National Statistical Office (NSO). It showed that the gross new enrolments with Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) rose to 1.49 crore in 2021-22, from 1.15 crore in 2020-21. It was 1.51 crore in 2019-20 and 1.49 crore in 2018-19. From September 2017 to March 2018, around 83.35 lakh new subscribers joined the ESIC scheme. The report said gross new enrolments with ESIC from September 2017 to June 2022 were 6.92 crore. The NSO report is based on the payroll data of new subscribers of various social security schemes run by ESIC, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA). According to the report, net new enrolments with retirement fund body EPFO stoo

Income taxpayers can't join Atal Pension Yojana from Oct 1: Govt

Social security scheme should reach the poor and underprivileged, says official

Labour codes not to kick in from Friday even as states, UTs frame rules

The Centre has already finalised rules on all the four codes

Indian gig economy to have 23.5 mn workers by 2029-30: Niti Aayog report

Think-tank recommends social security for gig workers

ESIC-run social security scheme adds 1.4 million new members in March

From September 2017 to March 2018, around 8.33 million new subscribers joined the ESIC scheme

Delhi HC sets aside AAP government's doorstep ration delivery scheme

Court said the Delhi govt is free to bring another doorstep delivery scheme but it cannot use grains provided by the Centre for this doorstep scheme