A report from the Press Trust of India (PTI) reveals that nearly 1,500 government employees, including senior officers and college professors in Kerala, have been found illegally receiving social security pensions. 

The issue was discovered during an inspection by the Information Kerala Mission, which oversees the digital systems of local government institutions. The inspection was carried out following instructions from Kerala's Finance Minister, K N Balagopal. Teachers and gazetted officers are among the recipients of these illegal pensions. Among them, in addition to three higher secondary school teachers, two associate professors were accused, one from a government college in Thiruvananthapuram and the other from Palakkad.

With 373 personnel getting pensions fraudulently, the Health Department had the most offenders, according to PTI. The Finance Department has directed the recovery of unlawfully obtained pension amounts, including interest and Minister Balagopal has ordered strict disciplinary action against the individuals involved.

The distribution of pension recipients across various sectors is as follows- Public education has 224 recipients, Medical education 124, Ayurveda (Indian System of Medicine) 114, Animal husbandry 74, Public works 47, Technical education 46, Homeopathy 41, Agriculture and revenue 35 each, Judiciary and social justice 34 each, Insurance medical services 31, and Collegiate education 27 recipients.

Officials have stated that in order to find and eliminate recipients who are not eligible, additional checks would be conducted at different levels. A top official told PTI that "actions will be taken to ensure that eligible individuals receive their pensions accurately, without delays." Kerala’s social security pension schemes support vulnerable groups like the elderly, widows, and people with disabilities. These schemes provide a monthly pension of Rs 1,600 to about 6.2 million people. The pensions are managed by local bodies such as Grama Panchayats, Municipalities, and Corporations, and applications are processed through the Sevana Pension platform.

To be eligible, applicants must meet certain income and residency requirements. For example, the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme is available to those aged 60 or above, with a family income below Rs 1 lakh and at least three years of residence in Kerala. Kerala is not the only state facing issues with fraud in social security pension schemes. Rajasthan experienced a similar problem, with an audit by the Social Justice Department between 2019 and 2022 revealing that 270,000 ineligible individuals received pensions, resulting in a loss of over Rs 250 crore. In Punjab, a 2020 discovery showed that more than 70,000 ineligible beneficiaries illegally took Rs 162.35 crore in pensions.

Haryana's Anti-Corruption Bureau report in 2023 highlighted issues with police investigations into pension fund misuse, prompting the Punjab and Haryana High Court to order the Central Bureau of Investigation to take over the case. In Tamil Nadu, a 2024 scam uncovered that funds from the Old Age Pension Scheme were diverted to other bank accounts, leading to efforts to recover the misappropriated money and prevent further fraud.