Having pension payments creates a source of income for senior citizens and gives them financial independence. Thus, the Government launched the Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana (PMVVY) which is a short term pension scheme for senior citizens. After launch, LIC was given the authority of selling these plans exclusively. Let’s have a look at what this scheme is all about –
What is Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana?
PMVVY is a pension scheme with a duration of 10 years. Pensions are payable during the scheme tenure which gives you regular incomes.
Salient features of the scheme
Here are the salient features of the PMVVY scheme –
- The scheme is available till 31st March 2023
- The pension rates would be guaranteed
- You can buy the scheme online or offline through LIC
- Pensions can be availed monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or annually
- The policy offers a free-look period of 15 days for offline purchases and 30 days for online ones
Why is the scheme beneficial?
Besides paying pensions, the Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana scheme also has a guaranteed death and maturity benefit. In case of death during the scheme tenure, the purchase price is refunded. Moreover, the purchase price is refunded even on maturity along with the last instalment of the pension. Thus, the PMVVY scheme not only creates incomes from your corpus, it also gives you your corpus back on death or maturity. Additionally, if you exit from the scheme before the completion of the duration of 10 years, you can avail a refund of 98% of the purchase price. Such exit should, however, be because you need funds for treatment of any critical or terminal illness suffered by yourself or your spouse.
You can also avail a loan under the scheme after the completion of three years. Loan of up to 75% of the purchase price is available at an affordable interest rate of 9.5%. This loan would help you meet any financial need that you have without having to use your pensions.
The eligibility parameters to opt for the PMVVY scheme
The PMVVY scheme is available only for senior citizens, i.e. for those who are aged 60 years and above. There is no limit on the maximum entry age. Moreover, there are limits on the minimum and maximum purchase price too depending on the pension payment frequency that you have selected. These limits are as follows –
Pension payment frequency | Minimum purchase price | Maximum purchase price |
Monthly | INR 1,62,162 | INR 15,00,000 |
Quarterly | INR 1,61,074 | INR 14,89,933 |
Half-yearly | INR 1,59,574 | INR 14,76,064 |
Annually | INR 1,56,658 | INR 14,49,086 |
Corresponding to the above-mentioned purchase price limits, the minimum and maximum pension amounts can also be checked below –
Pension payment frequency | Minimum pension | Maximum pension |
Monthly | INR 1000 | INR 9250 |
Quarterly | INR 3000 | INR 27,750 |
Half-yearly | INR 6000 | INR 55,500 |
Annually | INR 12,000 | INR 1,11,000 |
The Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana is a beneficial retirement planning tool which you can use for receiving regular incomes from the retirement corpus that you have built. What’s attractive about the scheme is that it refunds the invested corpus on death or maturity thereby allowing you to enjoy incomes without utilizing your accumulated corpus. Since pension rates are guaranteed, you don’t have to worry about market volatility affecting your incomes. The benefits of surrender value and loan also make the scheme flexible and suitable for meeting emergency financial requirements.
So, if you have accumulated a retirement corpus, invest the corpus in the PMVVY scheme to get guaranteed periodic returns for ten years as well as the refund of the corpus once the scheme duration expires.