26 lakh beneficiaries of pension, social security schemes found ineligible

BENGALURU: In a shocking revelation, the state government has discovered that as many as 26 lakh ineligible people were availing the benefits of the various pension and social security schemes.

After the government undertook an audit, the pension fraud has come to light where ineligible individuals were getting pension in state. Of the total 83 lakh beneficiaries of various scheme pensions as many as 26 lakh people pension were found to be without eligibility criteria. This has caused loss of crores of rupees to the government exchequer.

Under the Sandhya Suraksha scheme, which is for those above 65 years, pension has been looted by people who were of lower age. The same was the case with the Indira Gandhi national old age pension scheme.

As many as 1,14,000 underage ineligible beneficiaries were detected under both pensions. Under the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension scheme, 459,956 people were availing the benefit by giving false information about age. Similarly, 680,873 people had given false information under the Sandhya Suraksha scheme where a payout of Rs 1,200 per month is given.

Under the widow pension scheme, 3,41,809 people had given false information, under Manaswini pension, 22,862 and disabled pension, 2,22,086 people had given false information. Some of the beneficiaries were even paying income tax, the audit found.