Pensioners: month-long Digital Life Certificate drive starts November 1 in 2,000 cities and districts

Pensioners across India can submit their annual life certificate digitally at camps in about 2,000 cities and districts during November, the Department of Pension and Pensioners' Welfare said on Friday afternoon. The fifth nationwide Digital Life Certificate (DLC) campaign runs from 1 to 30 November 2026, and the department called it the largest so far.

The government has set a target of 2.30 crore digital life certificates, of which 1.50 crore are to be generated through face authentication, a method that needs only a smartphone camera and an Aadhaar number.

Why the life certificate matters

Every person drawing a pension from the government, the armed forces, the railways or the Employees' Pension Scheme has to prove once a year that they are alive. Without this proof, the bank or pension office can stop payments until the certificate is submitted.

For central government pensioners, November is the usual month to submit it. People aged 80 and above can submit from October. For decades this meant a trip to the bank branch, often with long queues of elderly people. A digital life certificate does the same job online and is linked to the pensioner's Aadhaar.

What the campaign offers

According to the department, the month-long drive will involve:

• 19 pension-disbursing banks and 785 district post offices, along with India Post Payments Bank
• 56 pensioners' welfare associations
• Technical teams from the Ministry of Electronics and IT and UIDAI, which runs Aadhaar
• The Controller General of Defence Accounts, the Department of Telecommunications, the Railways, the EPFO and state governments

Camps will also offer health check-ups and Aadhaar updates. The department said doorstep service will be arranged where required, and that grievance officers will handle complaints about DLCs on the spot. Larger "mega camps" are planned in areas with many pensioners.

The department notified the campaign guidelines through an office memorandum dated 13 August 2026.

How face authentication works

Face authentication lets a pensioner create a life certificate from home. The department said it works on both Android and iOS phones. In broad terms, the process is:

1. Install the AadhaarFaceRD app and the Jeevan Pramaan app from the official app store.
2. Enter your Aadhaar number, mobile number and pension details (pension payment order number, bank and disbursing agency).
3. Allow the app to scan your face. The scan is matched against your Aadhaar record.
4. Once it matches, a certificate ID is sent to your mobile by SMS, and the certificate goes to your pension-disbursing agency.

A family member can help with the phone, but the face scanned must be the pensioner's. If face matching fails, for example because the Aadhaar photo is very old, fingerprint or iris authentication at a bank, post office or camp is the fallback. Updating the Aadhaar photo first can help.

Free doorstep service for EPS pensioners

A separate government backgrounder issued on Saturday morning says the EPFO has partnered with India Post Payments Bank to offer doorstep digital life certificates to pensioners under the Employees' Pension Scheme. The EPFO pays the ₹50 fee per certificate, so the service is free for the pensioner. A postal worker visits the home with a biometric device.

The same document says about 82 lakh pensioners were receiving EPFO pensions as of September 2026. Under the Centralised Pension Payment System, they can receive their pension through any bank branch in the country, which helps people who move to their home town after retirement.

Practical tips

• Do not wait until the last week. Camps and servers tend to be busiest at the end of the month.
• Keep your pension payment order (PPO) number handy. It is printed on your pension documents and bank passbook entries.
• Save the SMS. The certificate ID is your proof that you submitted on time.
• Beware of fraud. No official will ask for an OTP over a phone call to "renew your pension". Scammers often target pensioners in November. Our guide to digital arrest scams explains common tricks.

The bigger picture

Digital life certificates were introduced in 2014 under the Jeevan Pramaan programme. The annual campaigns, which started in 2022, have focused on getting pensioners in small towns and villages to switch to the digital method. Face authentication removes the need for a fingerprint scanner, which was the main barrier for many older people, whose fingerprints often fail to register.

Pensioners who have questions can ask their bank branch, the nearest head post office, or their pensioners' welfare association, or visit the official Jeevan Pramaan website.

Correction, 31 October 2026: An earlier version of this story gave the wrong days of the week. The ministry's announcement was made on Friday, 30 October, and the government backgrounder was issued on Saturday, 31 October.