Pension income ceiling enhanced to ₹1.20 lakh, set to benefit over 20 lakh people

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Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara, during the Karnataka Legislative Assembly at Vidhana Soudha, in Bengaluru on August 19, 2026.

In a decision set to provide relief to over 20 lakh beneficiaries, the Karnataka government has decided to continue providing pensions under the Social Security Pension scheme to those with an annual income between ₹32,000 and ₹1.20 lakh.

The scheme covers old-age pensions, widow pensions and disability pensions, and the existing income ceiling had been capped at ₹32,000.

The decision follows an exercise in which the government extracted data from the Kutumba software, after which 23.14 lakh beneficiaries were flagged as suspicious. Following physical verification through the Sanyojane app, pensions of about 18.06 lakh beneficiaries were stopped as they were either not found at the addresses provided or failed to furnish documents, including income validation certificates.

However, the physical verification found that about 23.14 lakh beneficiaries fell in the annual income bracket of ₹32,000 to ₹1.20 lakh.

Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara, who holds the Revenue portfolio, said the annual income ceiling to avail of the pension had remained capped at ₹32,000 for a long time, leaving lakhs of people out of the scheme.

“By increasing the annual income cap, we have resolved a long-pending issue,” he said.

A note from his office said Mr. Parameshwara had directed the Revenue Department to continue disbursing pensions to 32.14 lakh beneficiaries whose annual income exceeds ₹32,000 but remains below ₹1.20 lakh. An order to this effect was issued on Tuesday.

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