NSAP pension stopped? Use RTI to restore it

Sunita Devi is 68. She lives in a village in eastern Uttar Pradesh, about forty kilometres from the district headquarters. Her husband died twelve years ago. For the last five years, a small sum — Rs 200 from the Centre under the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme and about Rs 500 as the state widow top-up — has landed in her post-office savings account on the tenth of every month. Seven hundred rupees a month is not much. In Sunita's house it buys the cooking oil, the salt, the matches, and a little soap. It is the difference between eating twice a day and going to bed hungry.

In March 2026 the credit did not come. In April it did not come either. By June, four months had passed. Sunita had submitted a Jeevan Pramaan digital life certificate at the Common Services Centre in November 2025; the operator had given her a printed receipt with a reference number. The post-office passbook told the truth — no entry. The village beat-worker who handles her paperwork said the record on his tablet showed “life certificate pending.” A neighbour whispered that Sunita's name may have been struck off after a survey, perhaps even marked “deceased” by mistake.

Sunita cannot travel to the district office every week. She cannot afford a lawyer. What she can do, from the same post office where her pension is credited, is file one Right to Information application. That single sheet forces the District Social Welfare Officer to pull her file, state on paper why the money stopped, and either restore the pension or give a reason she can challenge. This guide shows you exactly how, using only verified facts about NSAP as it stands in 2026.

The National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) is a fully Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), Government of India. It was launched on 15 August 1995 and covers both rural and urban Below Poverty Line (BPL) beneficiaries. The official portal is nsap.nic.in, maintained by the National Informatics Centre for the Ministry of Rural Development. NSAP is not run by the Ministry of Women and Child Development at the central level — that is a common confusion, because in two states (Odisha and Puducherry) the state-level implementation sits with the Women and Child Development Department.

NSAP has five sub-schemes. Three of them are monthly pensions, and these are the ones that stop and need an RTI to restore:

1. IGNOAPS — Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme. BPL persons aged 60 and above. Central assistance is Rs 200 per month for age 60 to 79, and Rs 500 per month for age 80 and above. About 221 lakh beneficiaries.
2. IGNWPS — Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme. BPL widows aged 40 and above. Rs 300 per month for age 40 to 79, and Rs 500 per month for age 80 and above. About 67 lakh beneficiaries.
3. IGNDPS — Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme. BPL persons with 80 per cent and above disability, aged 18 and above. Rs 300 per month for age 18 to 79, and Rs 500 per month for age 80 and above. About 8.33 lakh beneficiaries.

The other two sub-schemes are not pensions. NFBS — National Family Benefit Scheme is a one-time lump sum of Rs 20,000 paid on the death of the primary breadwinner (aged 18 to 59) in a BPL family. The Annapurna Scheme gives 10 kg of food grains free per month to those elderly who are eligible for IGNOAPS but are not receiving it.

The Budget for 2025-26 shows the scale: NSAP total Rs 9,652 crore — IGNOAPS Rs 6,645.90 crore, IGNWPS Rs 2,026.99 crore, NFBS Rs 659 crore, IGNDPS Rs 290 crore, Annapurna Rs 10 crore, and the Management Cell Rs 20.11 crore. About 94 per cent of disbursement is by Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to bank or post-office accounts, and more than 2.5 crore beneficiaries have Aadhaar linked to their records.

One figure that surprises citizens: the Rs 200 or Rs 300 central amount is only the Central share. Every state government is expected to add at least an equivalent state top-up. State top-ups range from Rs 50 to Rs 5,700 per month, so in most states the average total monthly pension is around Rs 1,100. When your pension stops, the whole stack — central plus state — stops together, because both travel through the same beneficiary record.

To ask a sharp question, you need to know how the money moves. NSAP money follows a four-step chain, and a stoppage can occur at any of the four links:

1. Link 1 — Beneficiary record at the district level. The DSWO or block-level officer (the BDO or BDO-equivalent in rural areas, the municipal welfare officer in urban areas) maintains the list of approved beneficiaries with their beneficiary ID, Aadhaar, bank or post-office account, and age.
2. Link 2 — Annual life certificate (Jeevan Pramaan). Most states require a fresh life certificate every November. Without it, the record is flagged “life certificate pending” and the credit is paused.
3. Link 3 — Aadhaar and NPCI mapper. For DBT to a bank account, the Aadhaar must be seeded into the bank account and mapped in the NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) mapper. For a post-office account, the post-office seeding does the same job. A failure at this step pauses the credit even when the beneficiary is alive and the life certificate is valid.
4. Link 4 — PFMS and the state treasury. The Central share travels through the Public Financial Management System (PFMS); the state top-up travels through the state treasury. Both generate a disbursement reference number for each monthly credit. When a credit is “held,” the hold reason and the disbursement reference together tell you exactly which link failed.

When the pension stops, the question is never “has the government run out of money.” NSAP is fully funded and the Budget for 2025-26 is already approved. The question is always which of the four links has a flag against your name. Your RTI asks for that specific flag.

The state-level implementing department varies, and this is the single most common routing error citizens make:

1. Social Welfare Department — most states.
2. Rural Development Department — Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Goa, Meghalaya, West Bengal.
3. Department of Women and Child Development — Odisha, Puducherry.
4. Revenue Department — Karnataka, Tamil Nadu.
5. Department of Labour, Employment and Training — Jharkhand.

At the district level the officer is almost always the District Social Welfare Officer (DSWO) / Social Security Officer, and at the block level the BDO or BDO-equivalent.

Two things have changed or been reconfirmed in 2025-26 that bear directly on a stopped pension.

First, the central pension rates were reconfirmed in a PIB press release dated 5 August 2025 — IGNOAPS Rs 200 (60-79) and Rs 500 (80+), IGNWPS Rs 300 (40-79) and Rs 500 (80+), IGNDPS Rs 300 (18-79) and Rs 500 (80+). There has been no central rate increase for the 60-79 IGNOAPS band since 2011, despite repeated demands in Parliament. If an officer tells you the central amount has “gone up to Rs 500 for everyone,” that is incorrect — the Rs 500 central rate applies only to the 80+ band. The state top-up is separate and varies.

Second, the Jeevan Pramaan digital life certificate is now the dominant route, and the CSC e-Governance Services fee schedule caps what a CSC kiosk may charge. The verified cost you should expect:

1. Jeevan Pramaan mobile app (face authentication or fingerprint): Free.
2. Bank branch biometric, Post Office counter, or participating Aadhaar Seva Kendra: Free.
3. Video DLC through PSU bank apps (SBI, BoB, PNB and others): Free.
4. CSC kiosk biometric: about Rs 30, with a regulated maximum of Rs 50 that a beneficiary should ever pay. A same-day re-print is Rs 20.
5. India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) doorstep service (postman visits the home): about Rs 70 plus GST, around Rs 83.

The practical point: in November 2026, when the life-certificate window opens, do not pay more than Rs 50 at a CSC, and do not pay anything at all at a bank branch or on the mobile app. If you were charged more, ask in your RTI whether the CSC was authorised to charge that amount, and cite the CSC e-Governance fee schedule that caps the biometric DLC charge.

What does this mean for Sunita? Her November 2025 DLC receipt is valid proof. If the district record shows “life certificate pending,” the failure is on the upload side — the DLC was generated but not pushed to the state NSAP portal. Her RTI will surface that gap.

You file one application, to the district office that holds your beneficiary record. If you also want the Central fund-flow record (PFMS), file a second application to the Ministry of Rural Development — but for a stopped pension, the district office is where the answer lies.

Step 1 — Identify the public authority.

1. The PIO, Office of the District Social Welfare Officer (DSWO) / Social Security Officer, your district. In the few states listed above, substitute the Rural Development, Revenue, Women and Child Development, or Labour Department officer as applicable. If you are unsure, address it to the “District Social Welfare Officer” — Section 6(3) requires the PIO to transfer it within five working days to the correct office.

Step 2 — Prepare your identifying details. Write down, before you draft: pension type (IGNOAPS / IGNWPS / IGNDPS), beneficiary ID, the last four digits of your Aadhaar, the last four digits of your bank or post-office account, the month from which the credit stopped, and the amount you expect each month. Never write the full Aadhaar number — only the last four digits.

Step 3 — Draft the questions. Ask for specific, dated records, not vague “details.” Six strong questions:

1. “Furnish the current status of my NSAP beneficiary record, including the live or held flag, as on [date].”
2. “Furnish the date of my last submitted life certificate (Jeevan Pramaan), the reference number, and the acceptance or rejection status with reasons.”
3. “Furnish the name of the survey officer who last visited my household for re-verification, the date of visit, and the findings recorded.”
4. “Furnish the Aadhaar and NPCI mapper seeding log for my beneficiary ID, with dates and the source of any 'inactive' or 'pending' flag.”
5. “Furnish the PFMS or state-treasury disbursement reference number for the last successful credit and for each month since the credit stopped, with the recorded hold reason for each month.”
6. “Furnish the procedure and timeline for restoration of a wrongly stopped pension, including arrears calculation, and the name and contact of the local Social Welfare Inspector and the First Appellate Authority.”

Step 4 — Use the right form and fee. The application is a plain letter headed “Information under Section 6(1) of the RTI Act, 2005.” The Central fee is Rs 10 under the RTI Rules, 2012 (Rule 3), payable by Indian Postal Order, court-fee stamp, or cash against receipt. You can also file online through the Central RTI portal at rtionline.gov.in for Central authorities, and through your State RTI portal for the DSWO. Most state RTI rules also charge Rs 10. BPL applicants are exempt from the fee under Rule 5 of the RTI Rules, 2012, on producing a BPL certificate or ration card copy. See RTI for Beginners: Everything You Need to Know Before Filing Your for the step-by-step filing process.

Step 5 — Submit and keep proof. File by hand at the PIO's office and take a stamped receiving copy, or send by registered post and keep the acknowledgement, or file online and save the registration number. Proof of submission is your protection if the reply is delayed.

Step 6 — Wait 30 days. The PIO must reply within 30 days under Section 7(1) of the RTI Act. If the matter concerns life or liberty, the reply is due in 48 hours — a stopped subsistence pension for an elderly BPL person has been argued by some applicants as a life-or-liberty matter, but most PIOs treat it as an ordinary 30-day case. Plan for 30 days.

1. A copy of your BPL certificate or ration card (also gets you the fee exemption).
2. The beneficiary ID printout from the NSAP portal at nsap.nic.in if you can fetch it.
3. The Jeevan Pramaan receipt with the reference number and date — this is your strongest single document.
4. Your post-office passbook copy or bank statement showing the last successful credit and the months with no credit.
5. The last four digits of your Aadhaar (never the full number) and of your bank or post-office account.
6. The Indian Postal Order or challan receipt for Rs 10, unless you are BPL-exempt.

1. Writing the full Aadhaar number in the application. This is a privacy error and a security risk. Use only the last four digits. Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act protects personal information; you are not required to surrender yours.
2. Filing at the state Secretariat instead of the district office. The Secretariat holds policy files, not your beneficiary record. File at the DSWO. Section 6(3) will eventually transfer it, but you lose five working days.
3. Asking vague questions like “why did my pension stop.” This gets you a one-line reply: “life certificate pending.” Ask instead for the date of the last life certificate, the reference number, the acceptance status, and the recorded hold reason — four separate facts the PIO must answer separately.
4. Skipping the disbursement-reference question. The PFMS or state-treasury reference number is the proof that money was released or held. Without it, the office can claim “system issue” without evidence.
5. Forgetting the BPL fee exemption. If you hold a BPL card, attach it and pay no fee. Many eligible applicants pay Rs 10 they do not owe.
6. Paying more than Rs 50 for a Jeevan Pramaan at a CSC. The CSC e-Governance fee schedule caps the biometric DLC fee at about Rs 30, with a maximum of Rs 50. Banks and the mobile app are free. Overcharging is a grievance, not a fee.
7. Not keeping a stamped receiving copy. Without proof of submission, you cannot file a First Appeal on time.

To,
The Public Information Officer,
Office of the District Social Welfare Officer,
[District], [State]

Subject: Information under Section 6(1) of the RTI Act, 2005,
regarding my stopped NSAP pension.

Sir/Madam,

I, [Name], S/o / D/o / W/o [Parent or Spouse], resident of
[Full Address], an Indian citizen, submit the following
application under Section 6(1) of the Right to Information
Act, 2005.

Pension type (IGNOAPS / IGNWPS / IGNDPS): __________
Beneficiary ID: __________
Aadhaar (last 4 digits): XXXX
Bank or post-office account (last 4 digits): XXXX
Month from which pension stopped: __________
Amount expected per month: Rs __________

Please furnish the following information:

1. The current status of my NSAP beneficiary record,
   including the live or held flag, as on [date].
2. The date of my last submitted life certificate
   (Jeevan Pramaan), the reference number, and the
   acceptance or rejection status with reasons, under
   Section 6(3) if the record is held by another office.
3. The name of the survey officer who last visited my
   household for re-verification, the date of visit, and
   the findings recorded.
4. The Aadhaar and NPCI mapper seeding log for my
   beneficiary ID, with dates and the source of any
   "inactive" or "pending" flag.
5. The PFMS or state-treasury disbursement reference
   number for the last successful credit and for each
   month since the credit stopped, with the recorded
   hold reason for each month.
6. The procedure and timeline for restoration of a
   wrongly stopped pension, including arrears
   calculation, and the name and contact of the local
   Social Welfare Inspector and the First Appellate
   Authority.

I state that the information sought is not exempt under
Section 8 or 9 of the RTI Act, 2005. Being a BPL
beneficiary, I am exempt from the application fee under
Rule 5 of the RTI Rules, 2012, and I enclose my BPL
certificate or ration card copy. (If not BPL, enclose
Indian Postal Order / Challan No. ____ for Rs 10.)

I request that the information be supplied in printed
form by post. If the information is denied, please cite
the specific section of the RTI Act under which it is
denied, with reasons.

Yours faithfully,

[Signature or thumb impression witnessed]
[Name]
[Date]
[Place]

RTI is powerful because it has a built-in ladder. If the PIO ignores you or gives a vague reply, you do not stop there.

1. First Appeal: If no reply comes within 30 days, or you are unhappy with the reply, file a First Appeal under Section 19(1) with the First Appellate Authority (FAA) in the same department, within 30 days of the expiry of the reply period. The FAA must decide within 30 days, extendable to 45.
2. Second Appeal: If the FAA also fails you, file a Second Appeal under Section 19(3) with your State Information Commission (NSAP is a state-implemented scheme, so the State Commission is the right body, not the Central Information Commission). There is usually no fee for a second appeal at the State Commission; check your state RTI rules.
3. Complaint under Section 18: You can also file a direct complaint to the State Information Commission if the PIO never replied at all or refused to accept the application.

One useful pressure point: under Section 7(6), if the PIO misses the 30-day deadline, the information must be supplied free of charge. And under Section 20(1), the Information Commission can impose a penalty on the PIO personally of Rs 250 per day, up to a maximum of Rs 25,000, for refusal or delay without reasonable cause — the burden of proving reasonable cause is on the PIO. This penalty does not directly order arrears to you, but in practice the pressure of a pending Section 20 complaint is what most often pushes the office to restore the pension and release the held months. The arrears themselves are a scheme entitlement, recovered through the restoration, not a direct RTI-Act remedy.

You can draft and track the First Appeal with our free First Appeal app at https://righttoinformation.wiki/tools/first-appeal-app.html , and check whether the PIO's reply was legally adequate with the PIO reply checker at https://righttoinformation.wiki/tools/pio-reply-checker-app.html . To draft the original Section 6(1) application from scratch, use the AI RTI draft app at https://righttoinformation.wiki/tools/ai-rti-draft-app.html .

The Central assistance under IGNOAPS is Rs 200 per month for beneficiaries aged 60 to 79, and Rs 500 per month for those aged 80 and above, reconfirmed by the PIB press release of 5 August 2025. States add a top-up that varies from about Rs 50 to Rs 5,700 per month, so the total pension in most states is around Rs 1,100 a month. The Rs 500 central rate is only for the 80+ band; it is not the universal central amount.

The most common cause is that the DLC was generated at the CSC or bank but was not uploaded to the state NSAP portal, so the district record still shows “life certificate pending.” A rarer cause is that the Aadhaar-NPCI mapper seeding failed, so the DBT credit is paused even though the life certificate is valid. Your RTI asks for the date and reference number of the last life certificate and the seeding log — those two answers will pinpoint the link that failed.

The fastest remedy is a fresh Life Certificate (Jeevan Pramaan or a biometric DLC) plus a certificate from the Sarpanch or Gram Panchayat Secretary confirming you are alive. This is standard NSAP operational practice — there is no special notification number for it. Submit both to the DSWO and file an RTI asking for the name of the survey officer who recorded the death and the basis on which it was recorded. A wrongly recorded death is recoverable, and the arrears for the stopped months are payable on restoration.

If you hold a BPL certificate or a BPL ration card, you are exempt from the fee under Rule 5 of the RTI Rules, 2012. Attach a copy of the BPL document and write “BPL fee exempt” on the application. If you are not BPL, the fee is Rs 10 for the Central authority and Rs 10 in most states, payable by Indian Postal Order, court-fee stamp, cash against receipt, or online payment through the State RTI portal.

Yes. Any Indian citizen can file an RTI. A son, daughter, or caregiver can file in their own name on behalf of the beneficiary, identifying the beneficiary by ID and last-4 Aadhaar. The reply comes to the applicant. If the beneficiary is physically unable to sign, a thumb impression witnessed by one person is accepted.

No. Pension-claim details of a third party are personal information and are exempt under Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act. The Central Information Commission confirmed this in *Vijay Kumar Garg vs GNCTD*, decided on 25 July 2017, where Information Commissioner Yashovardhan Azad held that repetitive third-party RTI applications seeking other persons' pension-claim details are exempt, and directed the public authority to publish pension-related information suo motu under Section 4(1)(b). You can ask only for your own record, or a record you are legally authorised to access.

No. A “system issue” reply without a date, a reference number, and a restoration timeline is not a proper reply under Section 7(1). The PIO must give the specific recorded hold reason, the disbursement reference, and the restoration path. If the reply is vague, file a First Appeal under Section 19(1) within 30 days, quoting the vague reply and asking for the specific records listed in your original application.

If the bank account is dormant or closed, the credit bounces back to the treasury. You must reactivate the account or open a new one and re-seed Aadhaar. If you migrated to another state, the pension requires state-to-state coordination — the old state must release the file and the new state must enrol you. An RTI to the DSWO of the old district can surface the transfer file and the reason for any delay.

In most cases where the cause is a life-certificate upload gap or a seeding error, restoration happens within the next one or two monthly cycles after the record is corrected, and the held months are released as a single arrears credit. In cases where a survey wrongly recorded death, it can take two to three months because a fresh field verification is required. Either way, the 30-day RTI reply gives you the written reason and the timeline, which you can then enforce through the First Appeal if the timeline slips.

NSAP operational practice does not provide for interest on delayed pension arrears as a standard entitlement. The arrears are paid as the held amounts, without interest. If the delay is found to be mala fide, a separate grievance or consumer claim can be pursued, but that is outside the RTI Act. The RTI gets you the arrears and the restoration; interest is a different forum.

1. NSAP official portal, Ministry of Rural Development: [nsap.nic.in](https://nsap.nic.in/)
2. PIB, Ministry of Rural Development — NSAP reconfirmation, August 2025: [dord.gov.in](https://www.dord.gov.in/static/uploads/2025/08/d8474fac2d884ab3aaef89e73957f1cd.pdf)
3. PIB document on NSAP, November 2025: [pib.gov.in](https://static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/specificdocs/documents/2025/nov/doc2025117686801.pdf)
4. Jeevan Pramaan portal and FAQ: [jeevanpramaan.gov.in](https://jeevanpramaan.gov.in/)
5. CSC e-Governance Services India Limited — DLC fee schedule (CSC kiosk cap Rs 30, maximum Rs 50)
6. RTI Act, 2005 — Sections 6(1), 6(3), 7(1), 7(6), 8(1)(j), 19(1), 19(3), 20(1): [indiankanoon.org](https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1369783/)
7. RTI Rules, 2012 (Rule 3 fee, Rule 5 BPL exemption): [niti.gov.in](https://niti.gov.in/sites/default/files/2025-07/RTI%20Rules%20Final%20PDF.pdf)
8. *Vijay Kumar Garg vs GNCTD*, Central Information Commission, 25 July 2017: [indiankanoon.org](https://indiankanoon.org/doc/160037866/)
9. CPGRAMS grievance portal: [pgportal.gov.in](https://pgportal.gov.in/)
10. Central RTI online portal: [rtionline.gov.in](https://rtionline.gov.in)
11. PFMS — Public Financial Management System: [pfms.nic.in](https://pfms.nic.in)

1. RTI for widow pension not credited
2. RTI for pension delay
3. RTI for disability
4. RTI for UDID disability certificate
5. RTI for government scheme delay
6. RTI for money and schemes
7. RTI for beginners — how to file
8. RTI for PM-Kisan installment

Last reviewed: 4 July 2026.