Telangana Pension Audit Uncovers Over 63,000 Deceased Beneficiaries

A statewide live verification exercise by the Telangana government has uncovered nearly 95,000 ineligible beneficiaries under the Cheyutha pension scheme, including more than 63,000 deceased individuals who were still receiving payments. The ongoing drive, initiated to plug leakages and redirect welfare benefits to genuine recipients, has prompted the state administration to tighten scrutiny over its social security rolls.

The verification process was launched after a pilot exercise conducted by the Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) flagged large-scale irregularities in the pension system. So far, the live authentication drive has covered approximately 17 lakh of the 19 lakh beneficiaries whose pensions are credited directly into their bank accounts through the Core Banking System. Verification for the remaining two lakh beneficiaries is currently underway.

In addition to the deceased individuals, officials discovered that 27,000 registered beneficiaries could not be traced despite multiple attempts to contact them using their registered mobile numbers. Authorities are now investigating whether these individuals have migrated, are genuinely untraceable, or if fraudulent pension withdrawals have been made in their names.

The audit also identified around 5,000 beneficiaries who have relocated outside of Telangana, with preliminary checks showing that some are actively drawing welfare benefits from other states. Furthermore, about 700 beneficiaries either refused to cooperate with the live authentication process or expressed no interest in continuing to receive the pension.

While weeding out ineligible names, the verification drive also highlighted technical challenges faced by genuine beneficiaries. Approximately 12,000 cases remain pending due to Aadhaar-related issues, and nearly 33,000 beneficiaries experienced biometric authentication failures because their fingerprints or iris scans did not match. State officials stated that corrective measures are being taken to resolve these technical glitches so that eligible recipients are not denied their pensions.

Currently, about 42 lakh people across Telangana receive Cheyutha pensions, with nearly 19 lakh paid through direct bank transfers. Removing fake, duplicate, and deceased individuals from the system is expected to reduce the financial burden on the state exchequer and improve transparency.

As the verification of the final two lakh bank-transfer beneficiaries nears completion, the Telangana government has also started identifying approximately two lakh new eligible beneficiaries. Combined with the vacancies created by removing ineligible names, the state expects to enroll around three lakh new beneficiaries into the pension scheme.