Family Pension Scheme (UKBOCWWB), Uttarakhand

What is the Family Pension Scheme of the UKBOCWWB?

The Family Pension Scheme is a benefit of the Uttarakhand Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board (UKBOCWWB), which operates under the Labour Department, Government of Uttarakhand. Under it, when a registered construction worker who was drawing the Board's pension dies, the Board pays a family pension of Rs 500 per month to the surviving husband or wife.

The Welfare Board is constituted under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 and funded by a cess collected from construction establishments in the state. Its members are the labourers, masons, plumbers, electricians and other workers engaged on buildings, bridges, roads, airstrips, irrigation and drainage works, embankments, tunnels, flood control works, power generation and transmission, waterworks, oil and gas installations, dams, canals, reservoirs, pipelines, towers and telecom installations. According to the Board's dashboard, more than 7.1 lakh workers are registered with it and over 5.5 lakh have been verified.

Family pension is the smallest of the Board's cash benefits, but it matters because it is the only one that continues indefinitely after a worker's death. It is the tail end of the Board's old-age pension chain rather than a standalone scheme, and it is best understood in that context.

How the pension and family pension fit together

The Board's pension provisions run as a single sequence:

• On completing 60 years of age, a registered worker receives a pension of Rs 1,000 per month.
• On reaching 65 years of age, the pension rises to Rs 1,500 per month.
• On the death of the pensioner, a family pension of Rs 500 per month is paid to the surviving husband or wife.

Pension is provided on a six-monthly basis, so the money arrives as a half-yearly credit rather than monthly. The worker, and after the worker's death, the surviving spouse; must submit a certificate of being alive, verified by a gazetted officer, every six months for the pension to continue. That life certificate requirement is the single administrative condition that governs the whole pension chain.

Who is eligible for the family pension?

You can claim if:

• You are the surviving husband or wife of a deceased construction worker.
• The deceased was registered with the Uttarakhand Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board and was drawing the Board's pension at the time of death.
• You can produce the death certificate of the pensioner and proof of your relationship as spouse.
• You have a bank account in your own name to receive the pension.
• You are able to submit a life certificate every six months, verified by a gazetted officer.

You are not eligible and cannot claim if:

• The deceased worker was not a pensioner of the Board. Where a registered worker dies before the pension begins, the family's route is the Board's death assistance; Rs 4,00,000 for death in an accident during employment or Rs 2,00,000 for ordinary death, and not this family pension.
• The deceased was not registered with the Board, or the registration had lapsed.
• You are not the spouse. The family pension under this provision is written specifically for the surviving husband or wife. Children and other dependants are covered through the Board's other benefits, such as death assistance and education assistance, rather than through this pension.
• You stop submitting the six-monthly life certificate, in which case the pension is discontinued until it is regularised.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the family pension

1. Obtain the death certificate of the deceased pensioner from the municipal body or gram panchayat that registers deaths in your area. Nothing in the claim can move without it.
2. Collect the supporting papers, the deceased worker's labour card, proof that you are the surviving spouse, your own Aadhaar card and a bank passbook in your own name.
3. Visit a Shramik Suvidha Kendra (labour facilitation centre) or the Labour Enforcement Officer / Registration Officer for your area, and file the claim for family pension against the deceased worker's registration number.
4. Have the claim routed to the Secretary of the Welfare Board. Claims under the Board's schemes are submitted through the Labour Enforcement Officer or Registration Officer to the office of the Secretary, Welfare Board.
5. Submit your first life certificate, verified by a gazetted officer, and repeat it every six months to keep the pension running.
6. Receive the pension as a six-monthly credit of Rs 500 for each month in the period, paid directly into your bank account.

There is no fee payable to the Board at any stage.

How to check the status of your claim

The Board's website, ukbocw.uk.gov.in, carries a link on its home page to check the status of a scheme application, alongside a separate link for worker registration status. Use the scheme application link with the reference your Shramik Suvidha Kendra gave you.

Because family pension is a recurring benefit rather than a one-time payment, the more useful check after the first credit is simply whether the half-yearly amount has arrived on time. If it has not, the first thing to verify is whether the life certificate for that period was submitted and accepted, that is the usual cause. The Labour Enforcement Officer or Registration Officer for your area is the right person to ask, and the Board's toll-free number 1800 2127 174 handles general queries.

Why family pension claims stall

• The deceased was not a pensioner. Family pension follows the death of a worker who was already drawing pension. If the worker died before 60, the family's claim is death assistance, not family pension.
• Registration had lapsed at the time of death, so the pension chain never began.
• Life certificate not submitted for a six-monthly period, which suspends payment until it is filed.
• Bank account not in the spouse's own name, or not Aadhaar-seeded, which causes the transfer to fail.
• Relationship not documented, where marriage proof or the family record does not establish the claimant as the surviving spouse.

The remedy for most of these is at the Shramik Suvidha Kendra or with the Registration Officer, who can identify which document is missing before the file goes further.

What other UKBOCWWB benefits the family may claim

A construction worker's family in Uttarakhand should look at the Board's other benefits alongside the family pension, since several of them are time-bound:

• Death assistance, Rs 4,00,000 where death occurs in an accident during employment and Rs 2,00,000 in the case of ordinary death, paid to the nominees or dependants. This claim must be submitted within two months of the date of death through the Labour Enforcement Officer or Registration Officer to the Secretary of the Welfare Board.
• Funeral expenses; Rs 10,000 to the nominees or dependants of the deceased worker, also to be claimed within two months of the date of death.
• Disability pension and ex-gratia, Rs 1,000 per month plus an ex-gratia amount of up to Rs 40,000 for permanent disability from paralysis, leprosy or an accident, certified by a government CMO or CMS and claimed within two months of the certificate.
• Education assistance for the worker's children — Rs 1,800 a year for Classes 1 to 5, Rs 2,400 for Classes 6 to 10, Rs 3,000 for Classes 11 and 12 and Rs 10,000 a year for graduate or postgraduate study, with ITI and vocational courses covered at the annual fee of the government institute.
• Housing advance, up to Rs 50,000 for purchase or construction of a house for a worker with five years' fund membership and at least 15 years left to superannuation, at a minimum of 5 per cent annual interest.
• Toilet construction assistance, Rs 12,000 in two instalments of Rs 8,000 and Rs 4,000.
• Health insurance, with the premium paid from the Board's fund, and maternity, tool-kit, cycle, solar energy, umbrella, sanitary napkin and skill upgradation schemes.

The two-month deadline on the death and funeral claims is the one to act on first, because family pension has no such window while those do.

Help and where to raise a problem

• Uttarakhand Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board: third floor, GMVN Building, Rajpur Road, Dehradun 248001
• Toll-free number, 1800 2127 174
• Email; ukbocw@gmail.com
• Portal, ukbocw.uk.gov.in
• Shramik Suvidha Kendra / Jan Seva Kendra, for registration, renewal and scheme claims
• Labour Enforcement Officer / Registration Officer. The officer through whom claims reach the Secretary of the Welfare Board

Key facts to remember

• Rs 500 per month family pension to the surviving husband or wife of a deceased pensioner construction worker.
• The worker's own pension is Rs 1,000 a month at 60 and Rs 1,500 a month at 65.
• Pension is paid on a six-monthly basis, against a life certificate verified by a gazetted officer every six months.
• Family pension applies only where the deceased was already a pensioner, otherwise the family's claim is death assistance of Rs 2,00,000 or Rs 4,00,000, within two months of death.
• Claims are routed through the Labour Enforcement Officer / Registration Officer to the Secretary, Welfare Board.