Payment of Civil Widows’/ Widowers’ and Orphans’ Pension

Background

For the first time in the history of Sri Lanka, a widows and orphans’ pension scheme has been introduced on 23 June 1898. It has been done by way of implementing Widows’ and Orphans’ Pensions Fund Ordinance No. 01 of 1898.
This pension scheme, which was restricted only to civil officers at the beginning, was extended later also to the officers in armed forces by way of implementing Widows’ and Orphans’ Pension Act (Armed Forces) no 18 of 1970 and the Series of Orders issued under the above Act on 28.11.1970 and further it was extended to female officers by way of implementing Widowers’ and Orphans’ Pension Act No. 24 of 1983.
In addition to the above, two other schemes have been introduced namely; Teachers’ Widows’ and Orphans’ Pension Scheme and Local Government Widows’ and Orphans’ Pension Scheme and at present these two schemes have been amalgamated as Widows’ / Widowers’ and Orphans’ Pension Scheme.

Accordingly,

“The unemployed children, who are below the 26 years of age, are granted entitlement to the benefits of this widows’/ widowers’ and orphans’ pension scheme after the death of a male/female officer registered in the widows’/ widowers’ and orphans’ pension scheme ”

When the contributor dies without having children within a year from the date of marriage, no entitlement to the benefits of widows pension is granted as per section 28 of the Widows and Orphans Pensions Fund Ordinance No. 01 of 1898 and section 11 of the Widowers’ and Orphans’ Pensions Act No. 24 of 1984. However, the Director General of Pensions has the powers to grant entitlement to the full or part of the pension.
The steps to be taken in the issues arisen in granting entitlements to the Widows and Orphans’ Pension/Widowers’ and Orphans’ Pension are specified in each Act in the following manner.

Widows’ and Orphans’ Pension Fund Ordinance No 01 of 1898

“42. Should any question arise as to whether any person is a Public Officer within the meaning of this Ordinance, or as to whether any person is entitled to any pension as the widow or child of a Public Officer, or as to the amount of pension to which any widow or child shall be entitled, or as to the meaning or construction to be assigned to any section of this Ordinance, or to any rule or regulation made under the provisions thereof, the Director may on their own initiative, and shall at the written request of such officer, widow, or child, submit such question for decision to the Secretary to the Ministry charged with the subject of Public Administration; and the decision of the Secretary to the Ministry charged with the subject of Public Administration thereon shall be final.”

Widows’ and Orphans’ Pensions Act No 24 of 1983

“31. Where any question arises as to whether any person is a contributor within the meaning of this Act or as to whether any person is entitled to a pension under this Act as a widower or as an orphan of a contributor or as to the amount of pension to which a widower or orphan is entitled to under this Act, such question shall be decided by the Secretary of the Ministry of the Minister”

Entitlement to Widows/ widowers and orphans pension is granted from the day after the date of the death of male/ female contributor.

Methodology

Accordingly, applications can be submitted to prepare civil Widows/ widowers pension in three ways.

Manual - Pension Circular No 06/2015,06/2015(1)
DS Portal - Pension Circular No 06/2015,06/2015(1)
03/2020 Online System - Pension Circular No 03/2020

(DS Portal and 03/2020 Online System are the information systems of the Department)

Role of the institution in the application process

Applying for a male/female officer, who dies whilst in service.

Applying for a male/female officer who dies after retirement.

When the approval is granted by the Divisional Secretary, the application is sent to the Department of Pensions through the data system.

Applications submitted as per Pension Circular No. 06/2015, 06/2015 (1)

Granting entitlement to the widows’/ widowers’ and orphans pension for the male/female officers , who die whilst in the service.
Granting entitlement to widows'/ widowers' and orphans' pension for officers die without pension entitlement.
Granting 50% of the widows' pension to the beneficiaries, who are receiving widows' pension, as a result of marrying again.
Granting benefits for a disappeared pensioner or public officer .
Granting entitlement to orphans' pension

Process followed by the Department for the application submitted under pension Circular No. 06/2015, 06/2015 (1)

In case of the files which are not entitled or rejected, the file will be sent to the record room after sending the letters of rejection to the relevant parties.

Applications submitted under old online system (DS portal) as per Pension Circular No. 06/2015, 06/2015 (1)

This is the process followed before the issuance of Pension Circular No. 03/2020. Under this system, the application was included in the data system by the Divisional Secretariats and such documents for the confirmation of information should be scanned and included in the data system.

Payments made by this system -

Widows' /Widowers' and Orphans' Pension
Orphans' pensions to the orphans who have completed the age of 18 years
Granting entitlement to 50% of Widows' /Widowers' Pension හිමිගැන්වීම
Increase in the widows' and orphans' pension
55 Revisions (The Anomalies Division deals with this part)

Applications are submitted by this data system only for payment of orphans pension to those who complete the age of 18 years, granting entitlement to 50% of pension to the widows/ widowers who marry again and increase in widows/ orphans' salary after the issuance of Pension Circular No. 03/2020

Process followed by the Department for applications submitted through DS Portal as per Pension Circular No. 6/2015, 06/2015 (1)

Here, under the part ''Widow/ Orphan Salary Increase' the part of the pension paid to each orphan is added to the parts of pension paid to other orphans when the entitlement of each orphan expires and in case of a payment made to widow/ widower of several legal marriages and orphans of previous marriage, the part of the pension paid to orphan/ orphans is added to the pension of the widow/ widower when the entitlement of orphans pension expires. Above mentioned process is followed in this case and recommendation of the Assistant Director (W&OP) is granted through the access of data system before obtaining the payment report after calculation and verification of arrears of salaries.
Under this process, further action is taken for the payment of widows'/Widowers' and Orphans' pension under non-online system by way of calling first pension file to the DOP from Divisional Secretariat, when the arrear exceeds Rs. 7.5 lakhs For this purpose, following documents should be included.
- Verification on the date of stopping the payment.
- The certified copy of the payment receipt to verify the following matters - If there are excess payments? If so, the amount and whether that amount has been recovered?
Following steps should be followed on the file submitted to the W&OP Division,

Applications submitted online as per Pension Circular No03/2020

In order to grant entitlement to widows’ / widowers’ and orphans’ Pension benefits for the male/ female contributors, who demise whilst receiving pension after retirement, applications should be submitted from Divisional Secretariats as per the provisions in this circular.

Process followed by the Department for the applications submitted as per Pension Circular No. 03/2020

Since this application is submitted online, if the arrears exceeds Rs. 7.5 lakhs, civil/ service pension files will be called from the Divisional Secretariats to the w&op Division. The Department of Pensions will calculate the arrears of files called in this manner and grant approval for the payment after making recommendation.

When referring these files, following particulars should be included.,
- Verification on the date of stopping the payment
- The certified copy of the payment receipt to verify the following matters - If there are excess payments? If so, the amount and whether that amount has been recovered
Action should be taken on the file referred to the W&OP Division in the following manner ,

If the arrears of the salary of the files submitted for the payment in all the ways mentioned above exceed Rs. 1.5 million, only the monthly payments will be activated and it will be sent to the Committee headed by the Director General of Pensions for obtaining approval for the arrears of salary. Once such approval is received, it will be referred to the Department of Pensions for the payment of the arrears of salary. .
In addition to the above, when an officer demises after retirement but before receiving pension, the payments for heirs are paid to his/ her heirs by the Centralized Pension Division of the Department and then the file is referred for the payment of widows’/ widowers’ and orphans’ pension. Accordingly, the future process of such files is carried out as per Pension Circular No. 6/2015 (1)
Further, activities pertaining to the payment of w&op to the widows/ widowers, who are staying abroad, will be performed by the Foreign Pension Division. .
In terms of the section 43 of the W&OP Ordinance No.01 of 1898, the children of the marriages, which take place after retirement/ dismissal from service/resignation of the post (Once such officer terminates the payment of contributions) will not be entitled to the benefits of widows’/ widowers’ and orphans’ pension scheme. However, these provisions are not applicable to the marriages made by male/ female officers, who are sent on retirement under section 2-7(On abolition of post) up to the age of 55 years.
When applications are referred by Divisional Secretariats through online system, files have been scanned and they have been included in the information system ‘AuraDocs’ for the convenience of confirming widow/ widower/orphan and w&op number. Through this process, the files can be checked by way of searching w&op membership number or name, if the files have been scanned.
It is required to register to have access to AuraDocs information system.For this purpose, it is required to obtain an access from the Information Technology Division of the Department of Pensions..

N.B.- Only the officers in charge of the subject of pension who are serving at Department of Pension and Divisional Secretariats have been given access facilities to this information system..

Method of searching a file using AuraDocs information system is given below.

The files, which have not been scanned in the above manner, will be included in the AuraDocs system obtaining them from record room and then scanning as per the requests made by Divisional Secretariats.

Required Documents

PD 4 Application
Certificate of death of the contributor - First copies obtained from Additional District/District registrar
Certificate of birth of the contributor C o B of contributor- First copies obtained from Additional District/District registrar
Certificate of birth of the spouse - First copies obtained from Additional District/District registrar
Certificate of marriage
Certified copy of the N I C of the contributor
Certified copy of the N I C of the spouse
Certified copy of the bank pass book of a savings account (Individual) of the spouse
A formal confirmation given by the Head of Institute, if any difference is found in the name of the contributor
An affidavit or legal documents to confirm the differences, if any difference is found in the name of the spouse
If contributor or spouse have any previous marriages,
- Certificates of marriages
- Certificates of divorce to prove that the marriage has ended (For upcountry and Muslim marriages)
- Absolute order of the divorce
- Originals of the certificate of death
Certificate of birth of the unemployed children below the age of 26 years , who have born from the previous marriages of the contributor and their bank details
Documents to prove the employment/ unemployment of orphans beyond the age of 18 years
Reports on civil status of widow/ widower (Should strictly be counter signed by Divisional Secretary) ප්‍රා

Ordinances, Acts and Circulars applied

Category Code numbers which are applied

Widows Pension - 21
Widowers’ Pension - 22
Orphans’ Pension - 23