Andhra Pradesh Raises Pension for Elderly: 70+ Get 10%, 80+ Get 15%

The Andhra Pradesh government has increased the pension quantum for its oldest pensioners. Those in their seventies, known as septuagenarians, will now receive a pension quantum of 10 per cent, up from 7 per cent. Those in their eighties, or octogenarians, will receive 15 per cent, up from 12 per cent. The revision amounts to a three-percentage-point increase in each of the two age slabs.

The decision has been welcomed by pensioners' associations in the State. P. Ramachandra Rao, president of the State Pensioners Welfare Association, and Rama Chandra Panda, president of the Vizianagaram district pensioners' association, thanked Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu for the revision.

Mr. Panda, however, said the government needed to do more on healthcare for the elderly. He urged it to put in place a cashless treatment scheme covering all reputed hospitals, saying several hospitals had been denying treatment to pensioners under the Employees Health Scheme (EHS).

According to him, a certain amount was being deducted from pension payments towards EHS benefits, but the scheme was not working as intended because of changes in the policies followed by hospitals. The deductions continued even though the promised benefit was not available at several hospitals, he said.

Mr. Panda also asked the government to reimburse medical expenditure within three months. Many elderly persons, he pointed out, had taken loans to meet the cost of operations and treatment in hospitals, and delays in reimbursement added to their financial burden.

The Employees Health Scheme is a State-run health cover under which government employees, pensioners and their dependants are entitled to treatment at empanelled hospitals, with the State bearing the cost of listed procedures. The concerns raised by the associations relate to this scheme.

Pension payments to retired State government employees in Andhra Pradesh follow an age-linked structure, under which the rate payable rises with the age of the pensioner. The revision announced by the State government raises the rate applicable to the 70-plus and 80-plus groups. The change concerns pensions paid to retired State government employees.

Elderly pensioners, the associations noted, are among those most dependent on timely payments, since many of them live on fixed incomes and have limited means of meeting sudden medical expenses. Mr. Panda said the burden fell hardest on those who had already borrowed money for treatment.

The demands raised by the pensioners' bodies point to a wider question of how healthcare is delivered to the elderly. Medical and care costs rise sharply in later life, and with India's elderly population projected to grow steadily over the coming decades, the adequacy of pension and health cover for older citizens has become an increasingly important area of public policy.

The associations' requests for cashless treatment at all reputed hospitals, reimbursement within a fixed timeframe, and clarity on deductions from pensions are now before the State government. The revision in pension amounts, meanwhile, stands announced.