New Delhi: The Government of India has clearly said that there is no plan to bring back the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) for central government employees who joined after January 1, 2004. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made this statement in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

She explained that the OPS was financially unsustainable and would put a big burden on government money in the future. That’s why the shift was made to the National Pension System (NPS) — a system where both the employee and the government contribute regularly to build a pension fund.

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Unified Pension Scheme Introduced Under NPS

To make pensions better under the NPS, the government has launched a new option called the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) on January 24, 2025. This was based on recommendations from a high-level committee.

The UPS provides assured benefits after retirement, aiming to give more security to employees while making sure the government's money remains stable.

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Key Features of UPS

Under UPS, employees will get 50 percent of their last 12 months’ average basic pay as pension, after 25 years of service.

If someone retires earlier, the payout will be reduced proportionally.

In case of death, disability, or invalidation, employees under UPS will be eligible for pension benefits under the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021 or CCS (Extraordinary Pension) Rules, 2023.

The definition of family and benefits have been improved for better coverage.

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Household Financial Health Improving

In another reply, Sitharaman said household finances are getting better. From March 2020 to March 2024:

Financial liabilities of households increased by 5.5 percentage points.

But financial assets grew faster — by 20.7 percentage points.

This means the net financial position of families has improved.

Retail Loan Growth Slowing, But Stable

According to RBI data:

Retail loans by banks increased slightly from 30.94 percent in March 2024 to 31.48 percent in March 2025.

But the growth rate of loans has slowed down — from 17.61 percent to 14.05 percent.

Still, banks are safe. The bad loan (NPA) rate is low at 1.18 percent.

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Unsecured loans (like personal loans without security) are only 25 percent of total retail loans and just 8.3 percent of all bank loans.

Savings on the Rise

The National Statistics Office (NSO) says net household financial savings rose from Rs 13.3 lakh crore in 2022-23 to Rs 15.5 lakh crore in 2023-24.