Overview
- The state issued an order on Friday that pension payments for almost all social security and welfare board beneficiaries will be routed into Aadhaar-linked bank accounts by Direct Benefit Transfer, with only completely bedridden recipients kept on doorstep delivery.
- The Finance Department cited repeated delays in returning undistributed sums, failures to update records, cases of duplicate payments and audit findings as the reasons for ending routine home delivery by cooperative banks.
- The move follows a 2023 CAG performance audit that flagged direct-to-home payments through primary agricultural credit societies as vulnerable to fraud because acknowledgements were not beneficiary‑level and some payments continued after deaths.
- Opposition leaders have condemned the order as likely to exclude elderly, disabled and unbanked pensioners and have demanded its rollback while the ruling UDF defends DBT as a way to remove middlemen and curb misuse.
- Implementation questions include how many of the roughly 62 lakh beneficiaries already use bank transfers—reports vary between about 25 lakh and 39 lakh—and how the state will verify Aadhaar‑linked accounts and bring remaining pensioners into the banking system.