Atal Pension Yojana: At Rs 42 Savings, Earn Fixed Monthly Pension Of Rs 1,000-Rs 5,000; How To Open Account?

Atal Pension Yojana (APY): The APY is a government-launched scheme that offers voluntary savings for Indian citizens. These savings later are delivered as defined pension benefits after retirement. In about ten years of its inception, the popularity of the APY scheme has skyrocketed.

Data from Social Welfare revealed that as of April 2025, there are more than 7.65 crore subscribers with APY accounts, and a total of Rs 45,974.67 crore has been mobilised. Also, there has been a record surge in participation of women, who now account for about 48% of all subscribers.

Atal Pension Yojana Scheme:

Launched on June 1, 2015, the scheme was designed to encourage voluntary savings for retirement by offering defined pension benefits, linked to the age of joining and amount of contribution. Targeted primarily at poor and underprivileged workers in the informal sector, the scheme has emerged as one of the most inclusive and accessible social security initiatives in India, as per PIB FAQs.

Atal Pension Yojana Key Highlights:

The scheme is initially aimed at workers in unorganized sectors and encourages them to voluntarily save for their retirement. Between 18 years to 40 years of age group can open an APY account and begin their savings. Notably, APY is not available for those salaried individuals who pay taxes.

The minimum contribution period is 20 years, depending on the age of joining. For those eligible subscribers who joined between 1 June 2015 and 31 March 2016, the government co-contributed 50% of the total contribution or Rs 1,000 per annum (whichever is lower) for 5 years.

Currently, the scheme is available however without government co-contribution.

APY is administered by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), and managed by National Pension System (NPS) architecture.

Atal Pension Yojana Benefits:

The scheme offers a defined monthly pension of Rs 1,000, Rs 2,000, Rs 3,000, Rs 4,000, and Rs 5,000. The benefits are provided at the age of 60 years, based on their contributions. The payment is made either monthly, quarterly, or half-yearly.

To avail of the benefit, a subscriber will need to voluntarily contribute from Rs 42 to Rs 210 per month if joining at age 18, or Rs 291 to Rs 1,454 per month if joining at age 40.

The pensions are offered for lifelong from the age of 60 years to death. In case of the death of the subscriber, the spouse receives the pension; the nominee gets the corpus. These contributions are auto-debited to the subscriber's bank account.

Also, there is a tax exemption of Rs 50,000 offered under Section 80CCD of the Income Tax Act (if eligible) for the APY scheme.

How To Open an Atal Pension Yojana Account Online?

As per the NPS Trust website, the following is the procedure to open an APY account online:

Step 1: You can open your APY account digitally. You need to link your Aadhaar with your mobile number to avail the facility of opening an APY account online.

Step 2: Fill in the required details correctly in the online APY registration form - savings account number, email ID, Aadhaar number, etc.

Step 3: Once signed up, enter the login details and complete the KYC formalities from the comfort of your home.

Step 4: After successful registration, you will receive an email with the acknowledgement number for APY registration.

How To Open Atal Pension Yojana Account Offline?

Step 1: Get the APY registration form from the POP

Step 2: You can submit the filled APY account opening form at the POP-SP, i.e. the bank or post office where you have your savings account.

Step 3: All banks (nationalised banks, private banks, banking companies, co-operative banks, regional rural banks etc.) act as POP-SPs directly or indirectly (through other enablers). Enablers include the following options:

Step 4: Existing Non-Banking Aggregators/Business Correspondents/Microfinance Institutions etc.

Step 5: Facilitator appointed by PFRDA or Central Government.

It needs to be noted that all citizens of India (non-taxpayers) can open an APY account offline or online.