Atal Pension Yojana enrolments see record 12 mn additions in FY24

New Delhi: The government’s social security scheme Atal Pension Yojana (APY) crossed total enrolments of 66.2 million as of 20 June, of which 12.2 million are new accounts opened during the last financial year, chairman, Pension Fund Regulatory and Authority (PFRDA) Deepak Mohanty said on Friday.

Speaking at an annual felicitation programme of APY in Delhi, Mohanty said that APY enrolments last year were the highest ever in a financial year since the launch of the scheme in 2015.

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He ascribed the success to the participation of public sector banks (70% share in FY24 enrolments) and regional rural banks (20% share).

According to APY data, around 70.44% of the total enrolments into the scheme has been done by public-sector banks, 19.80% by regional rural banks, 6.18% by private sector banks, 0.37% by payment banks, 0.62% by small finance banks and 2.39% by cooperative banks.

Popular among women, youth

The government pension scheme achieved a growth of 24% in gross enrolments at the end of FY 23-24 standing at 64.4 million. APY is rapidly gaining popularity among women and youth, Mohanty said.

In FY24, out of the total enrolments, 52% were women and out of the total gross enrolment since inception, 70% subscribers are in the age bracket of 18 to 30 years.

UP has highest enrolments

Among the states, 12 account for more than 80% of enrolments. Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of over 10 million, followed by Bihar, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu (5 million each); Madhaya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka (3 million each); and Gujarat, Odisha, Jharkhand (2 million each).

In HIS Independence Day 2021 speech Prime-minister Narendra Modi spoke about the need to ‘saturate’ the government’s social security schemes including APY for each and every entitled person. 

PFRDA, in line with the saturation mission has undertaken to conduct outreach programs in co-ordination with all SLBCs (State level Bankers' Committee) and RRBs across the country. In the FY24 , various physical outreach programs were conducted and more will be conducted in the current Financial Year.

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Targeting youth

PFRDA aims to target Jan Dhan account holders, promote digital mode of enrolment to target young population, involving other Central ministries, state governments and agencies like NRLM/ SRLM (National and State Rural Livelihoods Mission) for APY outreach programs through webinars and townhall meetings.

APY is the guaranteed pension scheme of the government, administered by PFRDA. The scheme allows any citizen aged 18-40 to join through a bank or post office branches where one has the savings bank account. 

Under the scheme, a subscriber would receive a minimum guaranteed pension of Rs.1,000 to Rs. 5,000 per month from the age of 60 years, depending upon their contribution. The same pension would be paid to the spouse of the subscriber after the demise of subscriber and on demise of both the subscriber and spouse, the pension wealth as accumulated till age 60 of the subscriber would be returned to the nominee.

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