It must be remembered that the correct name and date of birth (DOB) of Wife /NOK must be written in the PPO (Pension Pay Order) to get family pension. If there is andy discrepancy, please contact your Zila Sainik Board to rectify it now.

Soldier Board or Record offices do not create or provide PPO,. It is created and provided by these offices :-

(a) PCDA(P), Allahabad;- Makes for all Army pensioners, and Air Force and Navy retirees prior to 2006.
(b) CDA(NAVY), Mumbai:- Makes PPO for those who retired from Navy after 2006.
(c) CDA(AF), Subrata Park, New Delhi:- Makes PPOs for those who retired from Air Force after 2006.

If remarried and the deceased/divorced wife’s name is recorded in “Service Records,” or “Discharge Book” or “Pension Book” of pensioners, present wife will not get “Family Pension”. A large number of cases have been found that the pensioners do not know this and as a result widows in their absence are facing unbearable financial hardship without getting pension.

If wife’s name is written in PPO of ESM, then it is called JOINTLY NOTIFIED PPO or JN-PPO. This kind of PPO is quite safe for family pension as , no new PPO required to get pension for such family. If there is JN-PPO, after the death of the ESM his widow will get a family pension for life in that PPO. New PPO is not provided for widows.

If the wife does not have a JN-PPO written in her name, the ESM will apply to get the JN-PPO out of the records through the Soldier Board during her lifetime. No more JN-PPO will be created after death of ESM. Then, the widow will apply for PPO separately for herself. It will take a long time to get that.

Death is unavoidable for human being,. One day we all have to leave this world. After death, of exserviceman, wife’s name and date of birth (DOB) should be correct, complete and same in all four documents so that your wife’s family pension starts immediately. These four documents are:-

1) JN -PPO.
2) Joint Pension Bank Account.
3) Wife’s Aadhaar Card
4) Wife’s PAN card.
1) JN-PPO. If you don’t have JN-PPO, it can be for two reasons:-

(i) Name of wife not on record. That means you have not applied for marriage publication after marriage. Many people get married after pension but don’t apply for spouse name on records after marriage, so you remain unmarried on records. Hence there is no marriage part to order/POR/NAVPEN order. So if the wife’s name is not in the records, the wife’s name will never be there in the PPO.

(ii) Wife’s name is in the records, but not in the PPO. It can also be due to various reasons:-

(a) You have pensioned before 1998, so wife’s name is written only as LTA nominee in pension book. But there is no PPO, even though the wife’s name is not written in it. This is because there was no family pension then. So the names of all wives were written in the pension book only as LTA nominees.

(b) You have got pension after 1998, but wife’s name is not mentioned in PPO due to dispute with wife.

(c) You have barred the marriage part to order, so the wife’s name is on the records and in the discharge book, but have not made a separate application on the records for barring joint PPO.

(d) Name of your first wife is in PPO, but did not apply for inclusion of second wife’s name in PPO or second wife’s name is not included in PPO because children of first wife are not yet minor/married.

Note-1: If your wife’s name is not in the records, then you have to apply to the record office through Sainik Board to get your marriage part to order. The process is given in this Telegram group.

Note-2: If wife’s name is in “Records,” or “Discharge Book” and “Pension Book”, but you don’t have joint PPO, then you have to apply to record office through Saiyan Board to get wife’s name and DOB written in Joint PPO. Its procedure is given in Telegram group.

Bank’s Joint Pension Account. When wife’s name is written as second or joint account holder in the bank pension account, it is called joint account. Wife’s name should not be as nominee, should be as joint account holder. The correct name and date of birth of the wife should be written. Even if there is a JNPPO, if there is no joint bank account, it may take many months for the widow to open a new single account and get the pension in that account.

Wife’s Aadhaar Card. It should contain wife’s name and date of birth in full DDMMYYYY format. It will not work if only year is written. Wife’s Pan (PAN) Card. It should contain name of wife, name of father/husband and date of birth of wife in full DDMMYYYY format.

Information Credit – Group Captain Sanjay Bhattacharya, Secretary, Sainik Board, Barasat.