Grant Of Financial Assistance For The Funeral Expenses Of Old Age/ Destitute Pensioner

What is this scheme and who runs it?

Grant of Financial Assistance for the Funeral Expenses of Old Age/Destitute Pensioner is administered by the Department of Women and Child Development, Government of Puducherry, through its Old Age Pension Section. Despite the name, the scheme has two distinct limbs, and readers regularly confuse them.

The first limb is a monthly payment. An old age, widow or destitute pensioner of the Department who is suffering from tuberculosis or cancer receives an additional Rs 500 a month on top of the existing pension, to meet the extra medical and funeral expenses that a life-threatening illness brings. This is recurring assistance paid while the pensioner is alive.

The second limb is a one-time grant. On the death of an old age, widow or destitute pensioner, Rs 2,000 is granted as financial assistance towards funeral expenses.

The scheme is best understood against the pensions it sits on top of. According to the Department of Women and Child Development, Puducherry, the monthly pension rates are Rs 1,500 for widows, deserted women, unmarried women, transgender persons and old age beneficiaries aged 55 to 59; Rs 2,000 for old age beneficiaries aged 60 to 79; and Rs 3,000 from 80 years. A destitute pensioner in the 60 to 79 band who is certified with cancer therefore draws Rs 2,000 plus Rs 500, and the family later receives Rs 2,000 towards the funeral.

The reasoning behind the design is easy to see. Tuberculosis and cancer impose costs that a subsistence pension cannot absorb: travel to hospital, attendants, special diet, and finally the cost of a funeral, which falls on a household that has often already exhausted its savings on treatment.

Who is eligible for this assistance?

You can receive the additional Rs 500 a month if:

• You are an existing old age, widow or destitute pensioner of the Department of Women and Child Development, Government of Puducherry.
• You are suffering from tuberculosis or cancer, certified by a Government hospital or institution.
• You are resident in the Union Territory of Puducherry — in the Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe or Yanam region.

The Rs 2,000 funeral grant can be claimed if:

• The deceased was an old age, widow or destitute pensioner of the Department.
• The claimant is a relative or the person who met the funeral costs, able to produce the death certificate.

You are not eligible and cannot apply if:

• You do not draw an old age, widow or destitute pension from the Department. The scheme is an add-on to an existing pension, not a standalone benefit, and a person outside the pension rolls must apply for the pension itself first.
• You are a pensioner without a Government hospital certificate of tuberculosis or cancer. A private hospital report on its own does not meet the stated requirement.
• You are claiming for a person who was not a pensioner of this Department, for example a Central Government pensioner or a beneficiary of a different department's scheme.
• You are not resident in the Union Territory of Puducherry.

Differently abled persons should note that a separate scheme covers them. The Perunthalaivar Karma Veerar Kamaraj Scheme of the Directorate of Social Welfare pays Rs 15,000 towards funeral expenses on the death of a differently abled person with 40 per cent disability and above, claimable by a close relative within 30 days of the death. That is a different department, a different amount and a different time limit, and applicants should not confuse the two.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the funeral expenses assistance

1. Confirm the pension record first. Take the pension order or pensioner identity record to the Old Age Pension Section of the Department of Women and Child Development and confirm the pension is live and the category is recorded correctly. Every claim under this scheme is checked against that record.
2. Obtain the medical certificate for the monthly assistance. It must come from a Government hospital or institution in Puducherry and must state tuberculosis or cancer specifically. A discharge summary that does not name the condition will be sent back.
3. Obtain the death certificate for the funeral grant, from the Commune Panchayat or Municipality that registered the death.
4. Collect the application form from the Old Age Pension Section, Department of Women and Child Development, Puducherry, or from the regional office in Karaikal, Mahe or Yanam.
5. Fill the form and attach the documents, including a copy of the bank passbook so that the credit is not held up by an account query.
6. Submit the application to the Deputy Director (Social Defence), Old Age Pension Section, Department of Women and Child Development, Puducherry, and take a dated acknowledgement.
7. Follow up with the acknowledgement number if the additional monthly amount has not appeared alongside the pension credit, or if the funeral grant has not been paid.

How the money reaches the beneficiary

The additional Rs 500 a month is paid along with the existing pension into the same bank account, so no separate account or arrangement is needed. Where the pension is already being received, the practical effect of a successful application is simply that the monthly credit increases.

The Rs 2,000 funeral grant is paid to the claimant. Since the pensioner's own account is closed on death, the claimant's account details must be supplied, and a mismatch here is the commonest cause of delay.

Why claims are delayed or rejected

• No Government hospital certificate. A private report or a prescription is not a substitute for the certificate the scheme requires.
• Pension record not live. Where a pension has been suspended for a pending life certificate, the add-on cannot be sanctioned until the pension is restored.
• Death certificate not yet issued. Registration of the death at the Commune Panchayat or Municipality takes time, and the funeral grant cannot move ahead of it.
• Claimant's bank details missing or in another person's name.
• Wrong department. Families of differently abled persons frequently file here when their claim belongs to the Directorate of Social Welfare's Rs 15,000 funeral scheme, which has a 30-day limit.

Where to raise a grievance

Grievances go to the Deputy Director (Social Defence), Old Age Pension Section, Department of Women and Child Development, Government of Puducherry, and thereafter to the Director of the Department. Take the acknowledgement, the pension record and the medical or death certificate.

Applicants in Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam can route both the application and the grievance through the Department's regional office rather than travelling to Puducherry.

No fee is payable for the application form or for processing. Amounts under Puducherry's social security schemes are revised from time to time by government order, so the figures should be reconfirmed at the Old Age Pension Section before applying.

How to check your application status

This scheme has no online tracking portal, so status has to be confirmed in person or by phone with the office that received the application.

For the monthly Rs 500 assistance (T.B. or cancer pensioners):

1. Check the pension credit itself first. Since the additional amount is paid along with the regular pension into the same bank account, a bank passbook update or mini statement will show whether the higher amount has started coming through.
2. If two or three pension cycles have passed with no increase, go back to the Old Age Pension Section, Department of Women and Child Development, Puducherry (or the Karaikal, Mahe or Yanam regional office where the application was filed) with the dated acknowledgement given at submission.
3. Ask specifically whether the Government hospital medical certificate has been verified and whether the addition has been sanctioned in file, since the credit will not appear until that internal sanction is complete.

For the one-time Rs 2,000 funeral grant:

1. Contact the same Old Age Pension Section with the acknowledgement number issued when the claim was submitted.
2. Have the death certificate reference and the claimant's bank account details ready, since these are the two items an official will check the status against.
3. If the grant has been sanctioned but not credited, ask whether the delay is on the department's side or a bank-side issue such as an account name mismatch.

If there is no response after repeated follow-up, escalate in writing to the Director, Department of Women and Child Development, Government of Puducherry, referencing the acknowledgement number, the date of submission and the office where it was filed. Keep a copy of every letter and acknowledgement, since there is no digital trail to fall back on for this offline scheme.