How to apply for Atal Pension Yojana — complete 2026 guide

As of December 2025, PFRDA reports over 7.27 crore APY subscribers. Roughly 80% chose the ₹1,000 pension slab; only ~6% chose ₹5,000. Among rural informal-sector workers (street vendors, MGNREGA workers, construction labour), APY is now the single largest formal pension product.

The Atal Pension Yojana was launched on 1 June 2015 under the PFRDA (Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority) Act 2013, the APY Notification dated 16 May 2015, and the APY Operational Manual issued to banks and post offices. It is administered by PFRDA and managed under the broader National Pension System (NPS) architecture — but it is a separate product with government-guaranteed pension, unlike NPS where pension depends on market returns.

Who APY is meant for:

• Workers in the unorganised sector — street vendors, drivers, small shopkeepers, domestic workers, agricultural labour, gig workers.
• Anyone who does not have a formal pension scheme through their employer (no EPF, no NPS-employer, no government pension).
• People who want a certain, predictable pension after age 60 — not market-linked.

Who cannot join APY (post the 22 August 2022 Gazette amendment effective 1 October 2022):

• Anyone who is or has been an income-tax payer (filed an ITR with positive tax liability or is otherwise an “assessee” under the Income Tax Act).
• Joining banks now check this against the income-tax database during enrolment.

You choose one of five pension slabs. This is the monthly pension you will receive from age 60 till death:

• ₹1,000 / month
• ₹2,000 / month
• ₹3,000 / month
• ₹4,000 / month
• ₹5,000 / month

Higher target = higher monthly contribution. You can change the slab later (once a year, in April), but it is simpler to lock the right slab at the start.

Contribution depends on your age at joining and the target pension. Lower age = lower monthly contribution because the corpus has more years to grow. The PFRDA contribution chart is fixed by notification — your bank cannot change it.

Some sample numbers from the official APY contribution chart:

• Age 18, target ₹1,000 → ₹42 / month for 42 years
• Age 18, target ₹5,000 → ₹210 / month for 42 years
• Age 25, target ₹3,000 → ₹226 / month for 35 years
• Age 35, target ₹3,000 → ₹606 / month for 25 years (Suresh)
• Age 40, target ₹5,000 → ₹1,454 / month for 20 years
• Age 50, target ₹5,000 → ~₹3,066 / month for 10 years (only for the new 40-50 cohort under the 2024 amendment)

• Indian citizen with a savings bank account or post-office savings account.
• Aadhaar mandatory; the account must be Aadhaar-seeded.
• Active mobile number (for OTP and PRAN delivery).
• Age 18-40 (or 18-50 if you have never filed an ITR with positive tax — under the 2024 amendment).
• NOT an income-tax payer (since 1 October 2022).

Branch route (most common):

• Visit your savings account bank branch (SBI, PNB, BoB, Canara, Indian Bank, HDFC, ICICI, Axis — practically every scheduled bank). Or any India Post branch where you have a POSA account.
• Carry: Aadhaar (original + photocopy), bank passbook, one passport photo, and (if asked) a PAN copy + a self-declaration that you are not an income-tax payer.
• Ask for the APY Subscriber Registration Form.

Online route (eNPS):

• Go to https://enps.nsdl.com (NSDL CRA) or https://enps.kfintech.com (KFin CRA — earlier Karvy).
• Click “APY Registration”.
• Aadhaar + OTP-based KYC (your bank must already have your Aadhaar seeded for this to work).
• Choose pension slab + bank for auto-debit.
• Submit; PRAN is generated electronically.

• Personal details (name, DOB, address — exactly as in Aadhaar).
• Bank account details for auto-debit.
• Pension amount chosen.
• Spouse and nominee — the spouse becomes the default joint subscriber and gets the equal pension after your death; the nominee (typically children) gets the corpus after both die.
• Auto-debit frequency: monthly (default), quarterly, or half-yearly.
• Self-declaration about non-income-tax-payer status.
• Signature.

• Your contribution is debited automatically from your savings account on a fixed date each month.
• If the balance is insufficient on the due date, the system retries; a penalty of ₹1 per ₹100 (or part thereof) of contribution is added per month of delay.
• Continuous default for 6 months → account frozen. 12 months → deactivated. 24 months → closed with corpus refunded.

• PRAN (Permanent Retirement Account Number) is your unique 12-digit ID under NPS/APY.
• Generated by the Central Recordkeeping Agency (NSDL or KFin) and communicated by SMS + email + PRAN card delivered by post.
• Typical timeline: 30-60 days from form submission.
• Use PRAN to log into https://npscra.nsdl.co.in or KFin's portal to view contribution history, change nominee, change auto-debit bank, or change pension slab (annually).

• Login to CRA portal once a year — confirm contributions, projected corpus, projected pension.
• Change pension amount: allowed once a year (April window). The unpaid/excess amount gets adjusted.
• Change bank: allowed; submit a request through the new bank.
• Voluntary exit before 60: allowed only in case of terminal illness or death. Otherwise the subscriber's own contributions are returned (no government share, no interest beyond actual investment returns).

+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| Joining age                    | 18 to 40 years (extended to 50 for non-   |
|                                | income-tax-payers, w.e.f. 1 Oct 2024)     |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| Pension target (monthly)       | ₹1,000 / 2,000 / 3,000 / 4,000 / 5,000    |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| Monthly contribution range     | ₹42 (age 18, ₹1k pension) to ₹1,454       |
|                                | (age 40, ₹5k pension); up to ~₹3,066 for  |
|                                | age-50 entrant under 2024 amendment       |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| Pension start age              | 60 (lifelong)                             |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| Spouse pension                 | Equal amount, lifelong, after subscriber  |
|                                | death                                     |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| Corpus to nominee              | After death of both subscriber and spouse |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| Govt co-contribution           | NIL for new joiners (ended for joiners    |
|                                | after 31 March 2016; income-tax-payers    |
|                                | excluded since 1 Oct 2022)                |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| Tax benefit                    | Contribution eligible under §80CCD(1B) up |
|                                | to ₹50,000 (separate from §80C ₹1.5L)     |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| Auto-debit penalty             | ₹1 per ₹100 (or part) per month of delay  |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| Application fee                | NIL (free enrolment)                      |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| RTI to PFRDA for PRAN delay    | ₹10 by IPO. BPL = free.                   |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+

• Aadhaar-bank seeding incomplete. Online (eNPS) enrolment fails immediately. Walk-in works but PRAN generation is delayed. Fix: visit bank, submit Aadhaar seeding form, wait 3-5 working days, retry.
• Income-tax payer flag triggered. If the bank's CKYC / Form 26AS check shows even one ITR with positive tax in the last 5 years, the application is rejected at the CRA backend. You will get an SMS that the PRAN cannot be generated.
• Auto-debit fails for low balance. The first failure is silent; from the second month onwards a ₹1-per-₹100 penalty is added. After 6 months the account is frozen — no further contributions accepted till you regularise.
• PRAN not generated in 60 days. Either the bank has not uploaded your form to CRA (most common), or CRA flagged a data-mismatch. The bank will not proactively tell you — you must follow up with the branch manager and ask for the APY-CRA acknowledgement number.
• Wrong pension amount entered. The bank teller sometimes ticks the wrong slab. Easy to fix in the next April window — change is free, but past contributions are adjusted (refunded or topped up).
• Spouse / nominee details missing. PRAN gets generated but at age 60 the pension processing stalls until you submit a fresh KYC for your spouse + nominee. Better to fix this before retirement.
• Voluntary exit calculation dispute. If you exit before 60, you receive only your own contributions + actual interest earned — not the projected corpus. Many subscribers misunderstand this and feel cheated.

• Walk into the same branch where you enrolled. Ask the APY nodal officer at the branch to print your CRA acknowledgement and PRAN status.
• For India Post APY, ask the Postmaster.

• NSDL CRA helpdesk: 1800-110-708 (toll-free, 9.30 am - 6 pm, Mon-Sat).
• KFin CRA helpdesk: 1800-419-3024.
• Quote your PRAN (if generated) or your bank's APY Subscriber Registration Number (SRN).

• Web: https://www.npscra.nsdl.co.in → “Subscriber Grievance”.
• PFRDA helpline: 1800-200-3201 (8.30 am - 5.30 pm, Mon-Fri).
• Email: grievance@pfrda.org.in.
• 30-day SLA under the PFRDA (Redressal of Subscriber Grievance) Regulations 2015.

• Web: https://pgportal.gov.in → Ministry “Department of Financial Services” or “PFRDA”.
• Higher visibility; usually routed back to PFRDA for action with a status timeline.

PFRDA, the central recordkeeping agencies (CRAs) acting on behalf of PFRDA, and public-sector bank APY operations are public authorities under §2(h) of the RTI Act 2005.

RTI helps here when:

• Your PRAN has not been generated for more than 60 days and the bank gives evasive answers — RTI to PIO PFRDA New Delhi for “status of APY application bearing SRN _ submitted to _ branch on ___, with reason for delay”.
• Your contribution is being debited but not reflecting in the CRA portal — RTI to PIO PFRDA + PIO at the bank circle office for the reconciliation log.
• You exited APY before 60 and the refund calculation looks wrong — RTI to PIO PFRDA for the calculation worksheet (corpus, returns earned, refundable amount, deductions).
• Government co-contribution for old joiners (pre-April 2016) was promised but not credited — RTI to PIO PFRDA for the eligibility decision and reasons.
• Your application was rejected on income-tax-payer ground but you believe you were never an assessee — RTI to PIO PFRDA + PIO at the CKYC Registry for the underlying data.

For the full RTI structure see RTI in 12 simple steps.

RTI does NOT help here when:

• You want to know “which pension slab is best for me” — that is financial advice, not “information held”. Use a SEBI-registered advisor or the eNPS calculator.
• You want to change the contribution amount mid-year — there is a fixed April window; RTI cannot create a new window.
• You want PFRDA to increase the maximum pension above ₹5,000 — that needs a Cabinet-level policy change, not an RTI.
• You want investment returns like equity NPS — APY is a guaranteed-pension product; the corpus is invested in a low-risk default scheme. RTI cannot get you a different scheme allocation in APY.

Q. I am 42 and have never filed an ITR. Can I still join APY?
Yes — under the October 2024 amendment, the joining age was extended to 50 for citizens who have never been income-tax payers. Carry a self-declaration; the bank will verify against the IT database. The contribution amount will be much higher (because the corpus has fewer years to grow).

Q. I joined APY at age 30 and my income has now crossed the IT threshold. Will I be removed?
No. The 1 October 2022 cut-off applies to new joiners. Existing subscribers continue irrespective of their later income status. You should keep paying.

Q. What is the difference between APY and NPS?
NPS is a market-linked retirement product — your pension at 60 depends on the corpus that the equity / debt mix has accumulated. APY is a fixed-amount guaranteed-pension product — you pick ₹1,000-5,000 today, and the Government of India guarantees that amount from age 60. NPS has higher upside; APY has certainty.

Q. Can I have both APY and NPS at the same time?
Yes, you can hold an NPS Tier-I and an APY in parallel. They get different PRANs but are administered under the same CRA.

Q. My ₹606 monthly auto-debit failed for 3 months. What happens?
The contribution + a penalty of ₹1 per ₹100 (so ~₹7 per month) accumulates. Pay the back-arrears at your branch — they will lift the freeze. If you ignore it for 12 months the account is deactivated, and after 24 months it is closed with the corpus (less penalties) refunded.

Q. Can I transfer my APY from one bank to another (e.g., when I shift cities)?
Yes. Submit a “Change of Bank” request at the new bank, attach proof of new account, and ask the old bank to issue an NOC. The CRA will redirect future debits to the new account; PRAN stays the same.

Q. Can NRIs join APY?
No. APY is restricted to resident Indians. If you become an NRI after joining, you should ideally exit (or wait till you become resident again).

Q. What tax benefit do I get for APY contributions?
APY contributions are eligible for deduction under §80CCD(1B) up to ₹50,000 — over and above the ₹1.5 lakh §80C ceiling. Note: this benefit is available only under the old tax regime.

Q. My PRAN card never reached me by post. How do I get a duplicate?
Login to https://npscra.nsdl.co.in with PRAN + DOB → “Print PRAN Card” (₹35 for ePRAN, ₹50 for physical reprint). Or visit any POP-SP (Point of Presence Service Provider) — most public-sector bank branches qualify.

Q. The pension calculator on eNPS shows different numbers than my bank brochure. Which is correct?
The bank brochure is the PFRDA contribution chart — that is the legally fixed amount you must pay for a given target. The eNPS calculator may show projected corpus / projected returns based on assumptions; those are not guarantees. The pension amount itself (₹1,000/2,000/3,000/4,000/5,000) is guaranteed by GoI.

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Last reviewed: 26 April 2026 by RTI Wiki editorial team. APY rules and contribution charts are notified by PFRDA from time to time — verify current numbers on https://www.pfrda.org.in or write to admin@bighelpers.in if you spot a stale figure.