Tamil Nadu Government all set to roll out Senior Citizen Pension Scheme for people aged 80+

The policy also aims to make special provisions for senior citizens in the medical machinery of the state.

The Tamil Nadu government is all set to roll out a new pension scheme for citizens who are aged above 80 years of age. The committe has recommended that senior citizens who are aged more than 80+ years will be eligible to get a high pension as compared to other age groups.

As per the government, they have created a database and will now be introducing a differential age-based pension scheme for all three age cadres namely, 60 years, 70-80 years, and 80+ years. Recently, a survey was conducted in which more women are below the poverty line as compared to men. Also, 30 percent of the senior citizens of Tamil Nadu have applied for the old age pension. However, only 16% of them are receiving a pension.

The policy drafted by the state government has suggested that a universal elderly card will be offered to the senior citizen which shall make them eligible to avail of the benefits. With this, the benefits related to social entitlements, insurance, and medical expenses, public transportation, and entry to recreational places can be available at the concession.

Talking to the media, V Sivakumar, director of Helpage India said that those who are aged more than 80 years should receive a high pension amount. The reason for this is their vulnerability to more health issues. He also quoted that, around 24% of the total senior citizen are in extreme poverty. Whereas out of these 41% are from the urban areas and the rural area accounts for 32%.

The policy drafted by the Tamil Nadu government is aiming to offer all the basic amenities i.e. nutrition, healthcare, safety, and protection to make sure that they live a healthy life. Additionally, this policy also calls for offering extra medical facilities for senior citizen. This means that they shall be offered extra medical facilities in the naturopathy, geriatric day care centre, rehabilitation centres, yoga centre, mental health centers, palliative care centres, and dementia care centres.