Atal Pension Yojana (APY), a flagship social security scheme of Government of India (GoI) under Ministry of Finance (MoF) was launched on May 09, 2015 and came into operationalisation on June 01, 2015, designed to provide social security to unorganised sector workers and to ensure financial stability for the poor and underprivileged section of the society.
- The scheme is administered by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA). It is managed under the National Pension System (NPS) architecture.
About Atal Pension Yojana (APY):
i.It is a voluntary savings scheme for retirement which offers defined pension benefits, linked to the age of joining and amount of contributions.
ii.Initially, APY is open for all citizens of India aged between 18 and 40. Later, individuals paying income tax are not eligible to join the scheme with effect from October 01, 2022.
iii.Eligible subscribers to the scheme avail fixed monthly pension between Rs 1,000 and Rs 5,000 at the age of 60 years, depending upon their monthly contribution to APY.
- Pension slabs available: Rs 1,000, Rs 2,000, Rs 3,000, Rs 4,000, and Rs 5,000 per month.
Key Features:
i.Monthly Contribution: The monthly pension is based on subscriber monthly contribution for instance: if subscriber joins the scheme at the age of 18 then, he/she is required to contribute Rs 42 to Rs 210 per month.
- Similarly, if he/she joins at the age of 40, then monthly contribution ranges from Rs 291 to Rs 1,454.
- The premium of the scheme is paid on monthly, quarterly or half-yearly basis.
ii.Minimum Contribution Period and Calculation: The minimum contribution period for APY is 20 years, which depends on age of joining. Also, monthly contribution differs on the basis of: age at the time of enrolment and desired pension amount.
iii.Government Co-contribution (for early joiners): The government co-contributed 50% of the total contribution or Rs 1,000 annually (whichever is lower) for 5 years, only for subscribers who joined APY between June 01, 2015 and March 31, 2016 (the scheme is continued but without government co-contribution).
- This provision exempted the subscribers who are covered under any statutory social security scheme and income taxpayers at the time.
Key Benefits:
i.Guaranteed Monthly Pension: The scheme provides lifelong monthly pension only after the age of 60, until death of the subscriber.
ii.Family Pension Provision: the spouse receives the pension in case of death of subscriber, nominee gets corpus.
iii.Auto-debit Convenience: The monthly contributions are auto-debited from the bank account of the subscriber.
iv.Tax Benefits: Contributions deducted under APY qualify under Section 80CCD of the Income Tax (IT) Act (if eligible).
Exit and Withdrawal Options:
i.The subscriber exits from the scheme with full pension after the age of 60.
ii.The scheme has the provision of premature exit i.e. before the age of 60, only in cases of death or terminal illness of the subscriber.
iii.The scheme allows for the voluntary exit from the scheme, but in such case, the subscriber receives only the contribution made (with interest) and government co-contribution (if any) is forfeited.
Key Progress:
i.As per GoI’s data, the APY has witnessed exponential increase in enrolments from 1.54 crore (in March 2019) to 7.65crore (as of April 2025), mobilized a total corpus of Rs 45,974.67 crore.
- At present, women subscribers account for about 48% of all subscribers to APY.
ii.Also, over 89.95 lakh subscribers were enrolled alone in the Financial Year 2024-25 (FY25), of which over 55% were women subscribers.
Key Initiatives led by GoI and PFRDA:
Over the last few years, PFRDA has undertaken various initiatives for awareness creation of the scheme like:
i.Organising APY Outreach Programmes at state and district levels; conducting awareness and training programmes.
ii.Activating online channels like: e-APY, net-banking, mobile application (app), among others for easy online boarding.
iii.APY Help Desk and Chatbot at Protean-CRA are operational which assist subscribers of the scheme.
About Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA):
It was initially established as a regulatory body to promote, develop and regulate the pension sector in India. Later, it was granted a statutory body status through PFRDA Act, 2013 passed in September 2013 and the same was officially notified on February 1, 2014.
- It comes under the jurisdiction of Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance (MoF).
Chairman- Sivasubramanian Ramann (After May 2025)
Headquarters- New Delhi, Delhi
Established in- 2013
