Manipur Old Age Pension Scheme (MOAPS)

What is the Manipur Old Age Pension Scheme?

Manipur Old Age Pension Scheme, commonly abbreviated MOAPS, is a state-sponsored social security pension run by the Social Welfare Department, Government of Manipur. It sits alongside, and is separate from. The centrally sponsored Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme under the National Social Assistance Programme, which the same department also implements.

Manipur Old Age Pension Scheme targets a specific group: elderly people who are destitute, meaning they have no income of their own and no one legally liable and able to support them. The department's published rules define the beneficiary as "old aged persons, destitute, widows who don't have any income or sources of income, either of his own or anyone else who is legally liable to support him or her".

District Social Welfare Offices carry MOAPS on their scheme lists across Manipur. Tamenglong district reported 938 beneficiaries under MOAPS, Churachandpur reported 3,447, and the Social Welfare Department has more recently indicated that around 1,07,082 beneficiaries receive old age pension assistance in the state across schemes.

How much is the Manipur Old Age Pension?

The scale of benefit is Rs 200 per month per beneficiary, the rate published on the Social Welfare pages of Tamenglong district ("The Scale of benefit is Rs. 200/- per month per beneficiary") and Bishnupur district ("A pension benefit of Rs. 200/- per month is extended to the destitute aged persons of poor families").

One caution, stated plainly rather than hidden: the Ukhrul district scheme page lists the MOAPS benefit as "Rs. 1500/- per month", dated 20 July 2022. The state department's own older rules page still shows a historical rate of Rs 60 a month. These three official pages do not agree. Treat Rs 200 a month as the rate most consistently published across districts, and confirm the current figure with your own District Social Welfare Office before you make any financial plan around it.

For comparison, the centrally sponsored schemes the same offices run pay:

A person eligible under both MOAPS and IGNOAPS should ask the District Social Welfare Officer which list they have been placed on, because the two are maintained separately.

Who is eligible for the Manipur Old Age Pension Scheme?

You can get this pension if:

• You are a woman aged 55 years or above, or a man aged 60 years or above. This is the age split District Social Welfare Offices in Manipur publish for MOAPS, and it is more generous to women than the central IGNOAPS cut-off of 60 for both.
• You belong to a household Below Poverty Line (BPL).
• You are a domicile of Manipur having an Aadhaar card.
• You have resided in Manipur for more than 10 years at the time of application and are a citizen of India.
• You are destitute. You have no income of your own and no one legally liable who can support you.

Special provisions written into the rules:

• If both husband and wife are destitute, each one of them is eligible for pension. MOAPS does not cap the benefit at one per household.
• Widows with no source of income, including no income from property owned by them, or who have an earning brother, are eligible.

You cannot apply / are not eligible if:

• You are below the age cut-off — under 55 for women, under 60 for men.
• Your household is not BPL.
• You have a source of income of your own, or a family member legally liable to support you who is able to do so.
• You have not resided in Manipur for more than 10 years, or you are not a citizen of India.
• You do not hold Manipur domicile and an Aadhaar card.

What documents are required for the Manipur Old Age Pension?

The Manipur Old Age Pension rules list the required documentation with Form MOAP-I as a medical certificate confirming age, two recent attested photographs, and an income certificate from the relevant authorities.

How to apply for the Manipur Old Age Pension Scheme

1. Obtain a medical certificate of age from the government medical officer, along with an income certificate from the competent authority in your sub-division.
2. Collect Form MOAP-I and the supporting checklist. Forms for Social Welfare Department schemes are available at the Directorate of Social Welfare, Imphal, the Deputy Commissioner's office, the SDO offices, and the DSWO, DPO and CDPO (ICDS) offices in your district.
3. Fill Form MOAP-I with your personal details, age, residence, income position and bank account number with IFSC code.
4. Attach the medical age certificate, income certificate, two recent attested photographs, Aadhaar copy, BPL ration card copy, residence proof and bank passbook copy.
5. Submit the completed form to the Deputy Commissioner or the Sub-Divisional Officer of your area, and collect an acknowledgement.
6. The application is then forwarded to the Director of Social Welfare for processing and sanction. Selection of beneficiaries in the districts is done under the Deputy Commissioner.
7. Once sanctioned, the pension is credited to your bank account by Direct Benefit Transfer.

There is no online application portal published for MOAPS by the Social Welfare Department. The route is offline, through the district administration.

How and when is the pension paid?

Payment is by Direct Benefit Transfer into the beneficiary's own bank account. Manipur's district records show that pension amounts have historically been released in consolidated batches covering several months. Tamenglong district's record notes a cash payment of Rs 2,400 covering March 2015 to February 2016 released from October 2016, and another Rs 2,400 for March 2016 to February 2017 released from April 2017, following a Cabinet decision of 14 November 2014 and Government Order No. 8/9/2011-S(SW) dated 18 December 2014.

Practically, this means a newly sanctioned pensioner should expect arrears rather than a strict monthly credit, and should not treat a gap of a few months as proof that the pension has been stopped.

What happens during pensioner verification?

The Social Welfare Department conducts physical verification of pensioners under the supervision of the Deputy Commissioner. Tamenglong district's record of the September 2017 verification shows 12 death cases struck off MOAPS, reducing the district list from 938 to 926, and 417 death cases struck off IGNOAPS.

If your name has been removed in a verification drive but you are alive and eligible, take your Aadhaar, the pension passbook and the sanction reference to the District Social Welfare Officer and ask for restoration in writing. Families should report a pensioner's death to the DSWO, because continued drawal after death is treated as a recoverable payment.

Why are Manipur Old Age Pension applications rejected?

• Age not established by an acceptable medical or documentary certificate.
• Household not BPL, so the poverty test fails.
• An earning family member legally liable to support the applicant, which defeats the destitution test.
• Residence in Manipur of less than 10 years.
• No Aadhaar card, or Aadhaar not seeded to the bank account, so DBT cannot be made.
• Bank account in someone else's name, such as a son's or daughter's.
• Name struck off in a verification drive as a death or duplicate case.
• Already drawing IGNOAPS and being treated as a duplicate on the state list.

Where do I complain about the Manipur Old Age Pension?

• District Social Welfare Officer (DSWO) of your district. The first stop for a stalled sanction or a missing credit. District Social Welfare Offices publish staff names and mobile numbers on their district NIC websites.
• Sub-Divisional Officer or the Deputy Commissioner, to whom Form MOAP-I is submitted and who chairs district-level selection.
• Directorate of Social Welfare, Government of Manipur, Imphal, the sanctioning authority.
• Grievance redressal form on socialwelfare.mn.gov.in, which accepts a complaint or suggestion online with your name, address, phone, email and subject.

Applying is free. No fee is charged for Form MOAP-I or for sanction, and no agent can add a name to the pension roll.

How to check your Manipur Old Age Pension Scheme application status

MOAPS has no online application tracker. The Social Welfare Department has not published a portal login or SMS system where an applicant can enter an application number and see a status. Checking status is a manual, office-based process, and it works differently depending on which stage your application is at.

Right after you submit Form MOAP-I:

1. Confirm you were given a written acknowledgement by the Deputy Commissioner's office or the Sub-Divisional Officer's office at the time of submission. This slip, not a token number, is your only proof of filing, so keep it safe.
2. Note the date of submission and the name of the office you filed at. You will need both when you follow up, since there is no separate reference ID to quote.

While the application is pending sanction:

3. Visit or call the District Social Welfare Officer (DSWO) of your district. The DSWO's office holds the district-level list of MOAP-I applications forwarded for selection under the Deputy Commissioner, and can tell you whether your form has moved from the SDO office to the district selection stage.
4. If the DSWO's office confirms your form has been forwarded, the next stop is the Directorate of Social Welfare, Imphal, which sanctions the pension. The DSWO can tell you whether a case has reached the Directorate or is still pending at district level.
5. Because MOAPS runs on a continuous, non-batch application cycle with no published processing timeline, allow a reasonable gap, at minimum a few weeks, before following up a second time. Repeated visits within days of submission rarely produce new information because files move through the Deputy Commissioner and Directorate on their own schedule.

Once you believe you should have been sanctioned:

6. Ask the DSWO specifically whether your name appears on the sanctioned beneficiary list for your Gram Panchayat or ward, since sanction lists are maintained locally, not centrally published online.
7. If sanctioned, but no Direct Benefit Transfer has reached your bank account, check that your Aadhaar is seeded to the same bank account named on your application, since a mismatch here is a common reason a sanctioned pension does not actually get credited. Remember also that MOAPS has historically released payments in consolidated multi-month batches rather than every single month, so one or two months without a credit is not by itself a sign that something has gone wrong.
8. If the DSWO's office cannot resolve the query, escalate in writing through the grievance redressal form on socialwelfare.mn.gov.in, quoting your submission date, the office you filed at, and your acknowledgement details.