EOBI pension in Pakistan: who qualifies, the old-age grant, and how to check your record

Who is covered by EOBI

The Act applies to every industry or establishment where five or more persons are employed, or were employed on any day in the previous twelve months. It keeps applying even if the staff later falls below five (section 1(4)(i)). A smaller employer can join voluntarily (section 1(4)(ia)).

An "employee" is anyone employed for wages to do skilled, unskilled, supervisory, clerical, manual or other work, under a written or oral contract. A director of a limited company is not treated as an employee (section 2(bb)).

“shall continue to apply to every such industry or establishment even if the number of persons employed therein is, at any time after this Act becomes applicable to it, reduced to less than”

Employees Old Age Benefits Act, 1976 · Section 1, Short title, extent, commencement and application

Who pays: your employer's 5 percent

Your employer must pay a monthly contribution to EOBI of five percent of your wages (section 9(1)). The employer may not cut its share from your salary, whatever your contract says (section 9(3)). No contribution is payable once you receive the old-age pension or reach sixty (fifty-five for a woman).

“Notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary, the employer shall not deduct from the wages of an insured person or otherwise recover from him any portion of”

Employees Old Age Benefits Act, 1976 · Section 9, Rates and assessment

What you can get from EOBI

• Old-age pension (section 22)A monthly pension once you are over sixty, or fifty-five for a woman, if contributions for you were paid for at least fifteen years. For a miner with ten years in mining just before retirement, the age is five years lower.
• Reduced early pension (section 22(2C) and (2D))If your employer has a set retirement age below sixty and retires you after fifty-five (fifty for a woman), you can get a pension reduced by one-half percent for each month you fall short of sixty (fifty-five for a woman). The cut is for life.
• Old-age grant (section 22A)If you retire after sixty (fifty-five for a woman) with contributions for less than fifteen years but at least two, you get a lump sum: one month's average wages for every completed year, counting a part over six months as a year.
• Survivor's pension (section 22B)If an insured person dies while in insurable employment after at least thirty-six months of it, the surviving spouse gets a life pension. After the spouse's death, minor children can receive it.
• Invalidity pension (section 23)An insured person under sixty (fifty-five for a woman) who sustains invalidity, with fifteen years of contributions, or five years including three of the last five, can get an invalidity pension.

“If an insured person, not otherwise entitled to old-age pension, retires from insurable employment after attaining the age of sixty years”

Employees Old Age Benefits Act, 1976 · Section 22A, Old-age grant

How much is the EOBI pension?

The amount comes from a formula in the Schedule to the Act, based on your monthly wages on which contributions were paid in the twelve months before you qualify, and your years of insurable employment. A period of six months or more counts as a full year. The Act also sets a minimum pension, at the rate in the Schedule (section 22(2B)).

The current minimum pension is changed from time to time. Check today's figure with EOBI rather than trusting an old number online.

How to check your EOBI record and claim, step by step

• Step 1: Check your record onlineEOBI's own website, eobi.gov.pk, has an "Individual Information" page for checking an insured person's record. We have not tested every search option, so if it does not find you, ask your employer for your EOBI registration number.
• Step 2: Ask your employer for proof of paymentContributions are your employer's duty (section 9). If your record shows gaps, raise it with your employer and EOBI early, not at retirement.
• Step 3: Apply when you qualifyThe pension starts from the month after you meet the conditions, but it is not paid back for more than six months before the month you apply (section 22(3)). Apply soon after you turn sixty (fifty-five for a woman).
• Step 4: Stay in Pakistan or check the rulesPayment of old-age and survivor's pension is suspended while the person entitled is absent from Pakistan, unless regulations say otherwise (section 27).

“no allowance shall be payable retroactively for more than six months preceding the month in which an application for”

Employees Old Age Benefits Act, 1976 · Section 22, Old-age pension

What this does not mean

• The minimum pension amount changes; this guide does not give a figure. Check the current rate with EOBI.
• Sindh has passed its own law on employees' old-age benefits, which FAI's library does not yet hold; if you work in Sindh, check which institution your employer pays into.
• EOBI is separate from gratuity and provident fund; you may be owed those too.

Questions people ask

Sources

• Employees Old Age Benefits Act, 1976 · Section 1
  Short title, extent, commencement and application
• Employees Old Age Benefits Act, 1976 · Section 9
  Rates and assessment
• Employees Old Age Benefits Act, 1976 · Section 22
  Old-age pension
• Employees Old Age Benefits Act, 1976 · Section 22A
  Old-age grant
• Employees Old Age Benefits Act, 1976 · Section 22B
  Survivors' pension
• Employees Old Age Benefits Act, 1976 · Section 23
  Invalidity pension

Every quote and section above is traced to the full judgment or statute text by an automatic check that runs on every update.