Family Pension, Meghalaya Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board

What is the MBOCWWB Family Pension?

Family Pension of the Meghalaya Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board (MBOCWWB) is the continuation of a construction worker's welfare pension to the worker's surviving husband or wife after the pensioner dies. The Board is a statutory body under the Labour Department, Government of Meghalaya, with its office at Lower Lachumiere, Shillong 793001, and it is often referred to locally simply as the BOCW Board.

The rule on the Board's schemes page is short and precise: in the event of the death of a pensioner, family pension shall be given to the surviving spouse, and the amount of pension will be 50 per cent of the pension received by the pensioner, or Rs 100, whichever is higher.

That "whichever is higher" clause is the working part of the scheme. The Board's Welfare Pension begins at Rs 150 per month, increased by Rs 10 for every completed year of service beyond 5 years. Fifty per cent of a bare Rs 150 pension would be Rs 75, which is below the Rs 100 floor, so the surviving spouse of a minimum-pension worker receives Rs 100 a month. A spouse of a long-service pensioner drawing, say, Rs 250 a month receives Rs 125. The 50 per cent calculation, because it exceeds the floor. Every claim is worked out both ways and the higher figure is paid.

Family Pension is financed from the Board's welfare fund, which is built from the cess collected on construction works in Meghalaya and from members' own subscriptions of Rs 5 a month. It is not an insurance payout and there is no premium to pay for it.

Who is eligible for the MBOCWWB Family Pension?

A claimant is eligible if:

• The deceased was a pensioner of the MBOCWWB fund, that is, a registered building worker who had already been sanctioned and was drawing the Board's welfare pension.
• The claimant is the surviving spouse of that pensioner.
• The claimant does not receive any other government pension. The Board explicitly asks for documentation on this point as part of the claim.

A claimant is not eligible if:

• The deceased was a registered worker but not yet a pensioner. Family pension attaches to the death of a pensioner. Where a worker dies while still in membership, the family's route is the Board's Death Benefit, Rs 15,000 normally, and Rs 50,000 where the death occurred during employment — plus the Funeral Benefit of Rs 1,000 towards funeral expenses.
• The deceased was never registered with the Board. There is no posthumous registration, so an unregistered construction worker's family cannot apply.
• The claimant is a child, parent or sibling rather than the spouse. The rule names the surviving spouse and no one else. Children are served by the Board's educational assistance, cash award and death benefit schemes.
• The claimant is already drawing another government pension in his or her own name.

What documents are required for a family pension claim?

The nomination form matters more than families expect. At the time of enrolment, every MBOCWWB member files Form XXXI, nominating a spouse, minor children or parents. Where that nomination names the spouse, it is the cleanest single piece of relationship proof available, and it usually saves the claimant a trip to a registrar for a marriage certificate.

How to apply for the MBOCWWB Family Pension

1. Register the death with the local registrar of births and deaths and obtain the death certificate of the pensioner. Take at least two certified copies.
2. Collect Form No. XLV from the office of the Deputy Labour Commissioner, your district labour office, or the Board's website.
3. Fill in the form with the deceased pensioner's registration number, the pension amount he or she was drawing, the date of death, and your own bank account details.
4. Attach the supporting papers: death certificate, proof of relationship, the declaration that you receive no other government pension, the deceased's identity card and passbook, and a photocopy of the first page of your bank passbook.
5. Submit the completed claim to the Secretary of the Meghalaya Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, Lower Lachumiere, Shillong 793001, or hand it in through your district labour office.
6. Keep the acknowledgement, and note the deceased's registration number separately, it is the reference number that identifies the file.

To claim online, open the BOCW Online Portal linked from megbocwwb.gov.in and select family pension from the list of benefits available for online application. The portal supports account creation and password recovery by email or phone OTP. Documents still have to be produced for verification, so the online route reduces the paperwork trip rather than removing it.

How do you check the status of a family pension claim?

The Board's online portal does not publish a self-service status tracker for submitted claims. The dependable routes are:

• Phone the Board on 0364 2501224, quoting the deceased pensioner's registration number and the date the claim was filed.
• Email mbocwwb-meg[at]gov[dot]in with the same details.
• Visit the district labour office, where the Deputy Labour Commissioner acts as the Registering Officer and holds the local register.

Once sanctioned, family pension is a recurring monthly credit. Check the bank passbook rather than waiting for a separate letter each month.

Why family pension claims get rejected, and how to fix them

• The deceased was not a sanctioned pensioner. This is the most frequent misunderstanding. Verify from the passbook whether welfare pension had actually been sanctioned. If it had not, file for Death Benefit and Funeral Benefit instead. Those are the correct schemes for the situation.
• No proof of the pension amount. Without the deceased's passbook the Board cannot compute 50 per cent. Where the passbook is lost, ask the district labour office to certify the sanctioned pension from its own register.
• Relationship not established. A spouse who is not the nominee in Form XXXI should produce a marriage certificate or a certificate from the local headman or village authority, which is widely accepted in Meghalaya as supporting evidence.
• Another government pension in the claimant's name. This is a substantive bar, not a paperwork gap, and the declaration cannot be worked around.
• Incomplete death certificate details. A death certificate whose spelling of the pensioner's name differs from the Board register will stall the file until the discrepancy is explained.

What are the key dates for this scheme?

Family Pension has no annual window and no closing date. The clock starts on the date of the pensioner's death, and the claim should be filed as soon as the death certificate is available, because payment ordinarily runs from the month following the pensioner's last payment rather than from the date the Board receives the form. Delay in filing therefore risks arrears disputes rather than outright loss, but it is avoidable delay.

The related deadlines are the ones on the deceased's side of the file: the worker had to have registered before turning 60, kept the Rs 5 monthly subscription current, and had the welfare pension sanctioned at 60. Nothing in the family pension claim can repair a gap in that earlier record.

Where do you raise a grievance?

• Meghalaya Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, Lower Lachumiere, Shillong 793001
• Phone: 0364 2501224
• Email: mbocwwb-meg[at]gov[dot]in
• Deputy Labour Commissioner / district labour office, the Registering Officer for beneficiaries
• Labour Department, Government of Meghalaya (meglabour.gov.in), the administrative department above the Board

The Board publishes RTI provisions on its website, which gives a written route where a claim has been pending an unreasonable time. No fee is payable to any agent or middleman for filing a family pension claim.