EPS-95 pensioners can submit their life certificate from home on the Umang app, valid for one year, EPFO says

The Employees’ Pension Scheme 1995 (EPS-95) is the pension scheme run by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) for people who worked in the private and public sector. According to reports of an EPFO statement, EPS-95 pensioners can generate and submit a Digital Life Certificate from home using the government’s Umang app, without going to a bank or pension office. A life certificate is the proof, which pension payers ask for every year, that a pensioner is alive; without a valid one, pension payments can be stopped.

The reports say the certificate is valid for one year from the date it is submitted and can be submitted at any point in that year, and attribute this to a post by EPFO on X. An EPFO tweet quoted by HRKatha in August 2022 used the same wording: valid for one year from the date of submission. Angel One (July 2026) also quotes an EPFO regional official saying the certificate is valid for one year from submission.

What the reports say about the process

The process uses Aadhaar, India’s 12-digit identity number, to verify the pensioner’s face through a phone camera. Indian Opinion’s summary lists these steps:

1. Keep ready the Aadhaar number, the mobile number linked to Aadhaar, the Pension Payment Order (PPO) details, and the AadhaarFaceRD app installed on the phone.
2. Open the Umang app and search for Jeevan Pramaan, the government’s name for the Digital Life Certificate.
3. Choose face recognition.
4. Enter the pension and personal details.
5. Complete the Aadhaar OTP (one-time password) check.
6. Complete the face scan.

Angel One’s July 2026 guide to the Umang route gives the same elements in a slightly different order: after choosing face authentication, the pensioner enters the Aadhaar and registered mobile number and verifies the OTP, then enters the PPO number, sanctioning authority, bank details and any re-employment or remarriage, and finally completes the face scan through the Aadhaar Face RD app.

Once generated, the certificate is stored in the Jeevan Pramaan repository, the central online record, and becomes available to the pension disbursing agency, the office or bank that pays the pension.

Other facts

• Some outlets describe a separate route, the standalone Jeevan Pramaan app together with AadhaarFaceRD (Business Today, August 2026), rather than the Jeevan Pramaan service inside Umang. Both routes end in the same face-authenticated Digital Life Certificate; the reports on this announcement name Umang.
• The Prime Minister launched the online Digital Life Certificate facility (Jeevan Pramaan) in November 2014, according to a PIB release and RBI notification.
• EPFO’s own Jeevan Pramaan page, last updated 6 November 2026, describes the certificate as Aadhaar-based biometric verification that pensioners can download with a Pramaan ID, and says disbursing agencies receive it electronically. That page does not give Umang steps, a validity period or dates.
• The reports say pension payments may be stopped if a certificate is not submitted within the prescribed period.

Basis of these figures

The 11 November 2026 EPFO statement itself could not be opened. The “any time of year” point and the Umang steps come from an 11 November 2026 summary on Indian Opinion of Livemint, Economic Times and CNBC-TV18 reports, which attribute the statement to an EPFO post on X; none of those outlets’ own pages could be opened. The one-year validity and the Umang steps were matched against Angel One and Business Today pieces from 2026, and the validity against the 2022 EPFO tweet quoted by HRKatha. The description of EPFO’s Jeevan Pramaan page was read directly from epfo.gov.in. This article reports what was announced and does not say how it applies to any individual pensioner’s own due date.