Pension scheme: Delhi govt begins door-to-door biometric verification of 4.4 lakh senior citizen beneficiaries

Pension scheme: The Delhi state government has started door-to-door biometric verification of about 4.4 lakh senior citizens, PTI reported, citing officials. The drive, which began on Sunday, aims to identify ineligible beneficiaries of the old age pension scheme over three months of checks, it added.

Notably, the verification process was to begin earlier, but it was halted because permission for Aadhaar authentication of beneficiaries via a third party was not granted, as per the report. Now, the third party is proceeding after receiving permission, a senior Delhi government functionary told the news agency.

To qualify for the Delhi government's old-age pension scheme, applicants must be 60 years or older, have an annual family income of less than ₹1 lakh, be a resident of Delhi for at least five years, and not receive financial assistance or pensions from any other government source.

The functionary added that the full exercise is expected to take place over three months, and they expect “to create 20-25% vacancies out of the total 4.4 lakh beneficiaries after weeding out the deceased and duplicate beneficiaries getting other government assistance besides the old age pension”.

At present, the Delhi government provides a monthly pension of ₹2,000 to senior citizens aged 60 to 69 years, and ₹2,500 to those aged 70 and above.

Early in 2026, the state's Social Welfare Department signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Common Service Centre (CSC), which operates around 6,000 centres across the city for the survey. It is this CSC network that will now assist the department in carrying out the verification process at beneficiaries' residences.

For the duration of the verification exercise:

• Survey teams will pay door-to-door visits to registered beneficiaries and conduct biometric authentication using fingerprint and iris scanners.
• The teams will also capture live photographs of the beneficiaries and update their records through electronic documentation, officials added.
• There is no immediate impact on pension payouts until the process is completed.

In August, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) said it is considering one-time regularisation of contractual employees and extending entry pay, dearness allowance (DA), leave, and other benefits to them, PTI reported.

The MCD is examining the possibility of one-time regularisation of eligible contractual employees working against vacant sanctioned posts, the report added. This comes after Mayor Pravesh Wahi issued directions to the civic body Commissioner, Sanjeev Khirwar, on 31 July.

Mayor Wahi's directions cover contractual employees directly recruited by the Delhi Municipal Corporation who have worked with the civic authority for several years against sanctioned vacant Group A, B and C posts. The eligibility will be scrutinised against recruitment rules applicable to the corresponding posts, it added.

The assessment is expected to consider whether the initial appointments of these contractual employees were conducted through a regular process and did not involve irregularity or illegality.

(With inputs from PTI)

Jocelyn Fernandes is a journalist and editor with nearly 13 years of experience covering the business, corporate, economy and markets beats in news.<br> As chief content producer for around three years at Livemint (Hindustan Times), Jocelyn publishes breaking stories, explainers, features and live blogs on a range of business and economy topics, including the Budget, corporate developments, stock markets, income tax, money and personal finance, cryptocurrency, government policy, impact of US tariffs, international developments and more.<br> Jocelyn's writing philosophy is focused on delivering news in an accurate and accessible format for readers. She thus focuses her news coverage on explainers and FAQs in order to breakdown business, corporate, economic, and policy topics that are of importance to everyday readers.<br> She holds a Bachelors in Mass Media (BMM) and Post Graduate Diploma (PGD) in Journalism and Communication and has previously written for online business and markets news site Moneycontrol (Network18), Business-to-business (B2B) trade publications — the industry magazines Power Today and Solar Today (ASAPP Media), and the national news agency United News of India (UNI).<br> Outside of work, Jocelyn keeps up-to-date with local and international news, enjoys reading fiction books, novels and short stories, and enjoys movies, travelling and art. <br> She can be found on X and LinkedIn, and reached by email: <a href="jocelyn.fernandes@htdigital.in">jocelyn.fernandes@htdigital.in</a> <br> X/ Twitter handle: <a href="https://x.com/scribeJocelyn">@scribeJocelyn</a> <br> LinkedIn: <a href="https://in.linkedin.com/in/jocelyn-fernandes-journalist">LinkedIn</a>

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