According to an official statement on Tuesday, the Centre’s Department of Pensions and Pensioners Welfare (DoPPW) will partner with the State Bank of India (SBI) to create an integrated pension portal to improve the convenience of pensioners’ lives.

SBI’s two-day banker awareness programme in Udaipur, Rajasthan, on pension policy reform and digitisation of pension payments for central government pensioners to update SBI field staff.

A statement from the Ministry of Personnel, Public Complaints and Pensions said a special meeting had been organised to discuss income tax issues relating to pensioners and the digital way of submitting annual proof of living. It said immediate efforts were needed to create an integrated pensions portal that would provide a seamless service to pensioners by linking the existing portals of DoPPW and SBI.

The statement said that banks are likely to advertise the face-authentication technology for digital life certificates widely. It said digital proof of life and facial authentication technology would change the game for pensioners and banks to submit proof of life.

The statement said that increased convenience for pensioners is expected to be largely achieved through these programs. It said four such outreach programmes would be launched in partnership with the State Bank of India to cover the country.

The statement said similar awareness programmes would be undertaken in partnership with other pension payment banks in 2022-23.