Pension Assistance Scheme (ANBOCWWB)

What is the Pension Assistance Scheme of the ANBOCWWB?

Pension Assistance Scheme (ANBOCWWB) is the old-age benefit of the A&N Islands Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, the statutory board under the office of the Labour Commissioner and Director of Employment & Training, Sri Vijaya Puram (Port Blair). The scheme pays Rs 1,000 per month to a registered construction worker who has completed 55 years of age.

According to the Labour Department's welfare board page, the benefit is stated as: "Registered construction worker, who has completed 55 years of age, is eligible for pension @ Rs 1000/-per month … if he/she has continued as such worker for a continuous period of not less than five years and regularly paid contribution to the fund."

That single sentence carries three separate conditions; age, continuity of work and contribution discipline, and a claim needs all three. The scheme is sometimes referred to locally as the ANIBOCWWB pension or the construction workers' pension.

The Board was constituted in 2009 under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 and the Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess Act, 1998. The A&N rules were framed in 2003 and amended in 2010, 2014 and 2015 to bring in the welfare schemes now in force. The pension is funded from the cess collected on construction in the islands, of which Rs 64.52 crore had been collected as on 30 November 2018.

Who is eligible for the ANBOCWWB pension?

You can claim if:

• You are a registered beneficiary of the A&N Islands Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, with a registration number and identity card.
• You have completed 55 years of age, evidenced by a date-of-birth document.
• You have continued as a construction worker for a continuous period of not less than five years.
• You have regularly paid your contribution to the Board's fund.
• You have a bank account in your own name for the monthly remittance.

You are not eligible if:

• You are a construction worker who never registered with the Board. Working on sites for decades does not by itself create a pension right; registration in Form-B under Rule 23(1) is the qualifying event.
• You are below 55 years of age at the time of the claim.
• Your record shows less than five continuous years as a registered construction worker.
• Your contributions were not paid regularly and the default cannot be explained. Form-O asks for both the dates of the first and last subscription and for any default with reasons.
• You are an employer, contractor or site supervisor rather than a construction worker registered as a beneficiary.

Item 10 of Form-O also asks for details of pension benefit, if any, from another welfare board. That is a disclosure requirement, and the Board takes such pensions into account when it decides the claim.

How much is paid and how?

The pension is Rs 1,000 per month. Form-O asks for the applicant's bank account number as a listed document and separately for the "address to which pension is to be sent", so the Board records both a payment channel and a correspondence address.

The scale of disbursement so far is modest. The Board's published beneficiary list records:

Only 25 workers appear under Pension Benefit against 14,902 registered workers as on 30 November 2018. The gap is almost certainly about the five-year continuity and regular-contribution conditions rather than about age: a worker who registers late in life, or whose contractor stopped remitting subscriptions when a project ended, falls out of the qualifying track. If you are approaching 55, the single most useful thing you can do is keep the subscription record unbroken.

How to apply for the ANBOCWWB pension

1. Check your registration and age record. Confirm that your ANBOCWWB identity card shows your registration number and date, and that the date of birth on record will support a claim on completing 55 years.
2. Reconstruct your subscription history. Trace the date and amount of your first subscription and the date of your last one. Subscriptions are collected by the contractor and remitted quarterly to the Board's designated State Bank of India account number 30678637478, and the deposit counterfoil is the proof to keep.
3. Download Form-O, the Application for Pension under Rule 32(2)(a), from labour.and.nic.in, or collect a printed copy from the Labour Commissioner's office.
4. Fill in all ten items: name and address; sex; registration number; date of birth; date of completion of 50 or 55 years; details of the first and last subscription; default if any and the reasons; the list of documents; the address to which the pension is to be sent; and any pension from another welfare board.
5. Attach the three listed documents, a copy of the identity card, proof of date of birth, and your bank account number.
6. Sign the declaration that the facts are true to your knowledge and information, and enter the place and date.
7. Submit the set addressed to the Secretary, A&N Islands Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, Sri Vijaya Puram (Port Blair), in person or through the Labour Department's field offices, and keep the acknowledgement.

How do I register with the Board if I am not registered?

Registration is applied for in Form-B under Rule 23(1), "Application for Registration as a Beneficiary". It asks for the worker's name, father's or husband's name, date of birth with attested age proof, permanent and present address, marital status, and the name and address of every employer worked for in the last three months, with the dates of commencement and conclusion and the number of days actually employed.

The Board's note on contractor liability sets out what to carry: the application goes to the concerned Beneficiary Registration Officer with a registration fee of Rs 20, three passport-size photographs and attested photocopies of age and address proof. The certificate of engagement as a construction worker on Form-B may be signed by the employer or contractor, a trade union President or General Secretary, the Secretary of a Gram Panchayat or of the Port Blair Municipal Council, a Labour Inspector, a Junior Engineer of the department concerned, or a listed panchayat office-bearer.

Registering as early as possible in a working life matters more for the pension than for any other Board benefit, because the five-year continuity clock and the contribution record both start at registration.

Form-C, the nomination form under Rule 23(5), should be filed at the same time. It names the rightful dependants who may receive dues from the Board, with the share of each. If a pensioner dies, that nomination is what allows the Board to settle outstanding amounts without a separate legal-heir dispute.

How do I check the status of a pension claim?

The Board does not run a public online tracker for pension claims. Follow up with the Secretary of the Board at the Labour Commissioner's office, quoting your registration number and the date Form-O was submitted. The Labour Department also publishes a list of beneficiaries and a list of dues to beneficiaries on labour.and.nic.in; both are worth checking for your name and registration number, particularly if a monthly instalment appears to have stopped. Where a claim stalls, the Assistant Labour Commissioner is the officer named in the department's Citizen Charter for matters under the Building and Other Construction Workers Act.

Why ANBOCWWB pension claims get rejected

• Age not established. No acceptable date-of-birth document, or a mismatch between the registration record and the proof filed.
• Continuity not shown. The record does not support five continuous years as a registered construction worker.
• Contribution default. Subscriptions were not paid regularly, and item 7 of Form-O has been left blank instead of explaining the gap.
• Registration lapsed long before the claim was filed.
• Bank account mismatch, where the account is not in the worker's own name or the name spelling differs from the identity card.
• Undisclosed pension from another welfare board, discovered later.
• Incomplete Form-O. The form is short, and blank fields are the commonest reason a claim is returned rather than decided.

Most of these are fixable. Reconstruct the subscription trail from deposit counterfoils held by your contractor, get the employer or trade union to certify your continuity of work, correct the name on the bank account, and resubmit with item 7 filled in honestly.

What else does registration with the Board give you?

A registered worker approaching 55 is usually entitled to more than the pension alone. The Board's schemes include medical assistance at Rs 200 a day for the first five days of hospitalisation and Rs 100 a day thereafter subject to a maximum of Rs 5,000, with up to Rs 1,00,000 where a beneficiary or dependant is referred to the mainland by government medical authorities and Rs 600 a day up to Rs 15,000 where a patient is referred from the outer islands to Port Blair; Rs 1,000 for emergency treatment in a hospital in the islands, once a year; death benefit of Rs 1,00,000 for natural death and Rs 2,00,000 for accidental death during employment; funeral assistance of Rs 5,000; marriage assistance of Rs 20,000; educational assistance from Rs 300 to Rs 2,000 a month by class; and skill development tool kits worth up to Rs 10,000.

Where do I complain if the pension is not sanctioned or stops?

• Secretary, A&N Islands Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, Sri Vijaya Puram (Port Blair) — the authority to whom Form-O is addressed.
• Assistant Labour Commissioner. The designated officer for BOCW matters under the department's Citizen Charter, which sets a seven-working-day standard for registration and licensing under the Act.
• Labour Commissioner and Director of Employment & Training, Sri Vijaya Puram. The appellate level for the department's services. The Citizen Charter in force was issued on 7 May 2025 with a next review date of 6 May 2026.

Registration with the Board costs Rs 20 as a statutory fee. No agent may charge you a commission to sanction or release a pension, and no official will ask you for a share of the monthly amount.