Ever since the announcement of the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS), I had assumed that it would also apply to the Union Government’s Central Autonomous Bodies (CABs) (which include all the IITs; see a full list in the link below). That is not the case. Contrary to some reports online, none of the official notifications about…
Continue reading →Central government employees must decide between the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) and the National Pension Scheme (NPS) before June. We have already published calculators and opinions on the subject, as regular readers may know. Here are some articles from the full UPS archive. Why I will not opt for the unified pension scheme UPS vs…
Continue reading →In this article, Dr Varunkumar Jayapaul, a faculty member at IIT Mandi, shares his thoughts on who should choose the National Pension Scheme (NPS) and who should choose the Unified Pension Scheme. Our NPS vs UPS coverage Revised UPS vs NPS Calculator after Jan 2025 Gazette Notification Unified Pension Scheme Formula Explained How does the…
Continue reading →The unified pension scheme regulations were released as a gazette notification on March 19th 2025. We have extensively covered the UPS earlier: If you have not yet understood how the UPS works, start with the second or third link below. Revised UPS vs NPS Calculator after Jan 2025 Gazette Notification Unified Pension Scheme Formula Explained…
Continue reading →The unified pension scheme regulations were released as a gazette notification on March 19th 2025. The scheme rules were earlier announced: Jan 2025 Gazette Notification. This is our coverage of the Unified Pension Scheme. Revised UPS vs NPS Calculator after Jan 2025 Gazette Notification Unified Pension Scheme Formula Explained How does the Unified Pension Scheme work?…
Continue reading →In this article, Ganesh, a central government employee, decodes the unified pension scheme and discusses when it makes sense to opt for it. Per the UPS Gazette notification, an individual corpus will be built for each employee, consisting of 20% of Basic + DA (10% by employee and 10% by government/employer). A separate contribution of…
Continue reading →Now that the gazette notification for the Unified Pension Scheme is out (look for CG-DL-E-25012025-260482 at https://egazette.gov.in/), or download a copy here now may be a good time to revisit the NPS vs UPS decision for government employees, especially given that they must exercise their choice, and it’s a one-time non-modifiable choice! About the author:…
Continue reading →The Jan 2025 Gazette Notification has explained the workings of the Unified Pension Scheme. We have updated our free NPS vs UPS calculator, considering these changes. In this article, we provide a simple explanation of the formula used to compute the pension using the same terminology used in the notification. UPS pension = (P/2) x…
Continue reading →Use this free calculator to determine if you can stay invested in the National Pension Scheme or consider switching to the Unified Pension Scheme. This is an updated version of the calculator first published in Aug 2024, incorporating the Jan 2025 Gazette Notification. We have tried to incorporate all the UPS essential features into the…
Continue reading →Since the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) announcement, several readers have asked me if I would opt for UPS. In this article, I explain why I prefer the NPS (National Pension Scheme) to the UPS, I have discussed a simple thumb rule to decide between the Unified Pension Scheme and the National Pension Scheme and also…
Continue reading →A reader asked, “What is the effective interest rate of the Unified Pension Scheme?” A discussion. As a pension scheme, it can be compared with life insurance policy annuity schemes that offer a pension in exchange for a lump sum. These schemes have an interest rate, also known as an annuity rate. See LIC Pension…
Continue reading →We recently published a calculator to compare the Unified Pension Scheme and the National Pension Scheme. We have updated this tool with an alternative comparison using withdrawal rates. This is based on the thumb rule to decide between the Unified Pension Scheme and the National Pension Scheme. Our first method compares only the products. It…
Continue reading →We discuss a simple, holistic guideline or thumb rule to decide between the Unified Pension Scheme and the National Pension Scheme. We have published a calculator to compare NPS and UPS. However, this involves too many unknowns and projections if retirement is far away. Also, the calculator only compares the two products, NPS and UPS….
Continue reading →Use this free calculator to find out if you can stay invested in the National Pension Scheme or must consider a switch to the Unified Pension Scheme (for Central government subscribers only at the time of writing). We have already covered the salient features of the Unified Pension Scheme and other considerations in our coverage:…
Continue reading →Several readers have asked us for a calculator to help them decide if they should switch from the National Pension Scheme (NPS) to the newly announced Unified Pension Scheme (UPS). Such a calculator is now available for free download, but several caveats must be considered. This is not an easy calculation, especially for those new…
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