Everything About Social Security Allowance in Nepal
As per the definition, social security allowance is the money allocated for pensioners who are unable to earn or whose income falls below a level that is set by the government.
While this is an important governmental procedure, the thing is, not a lot of people are aware that this provision even exists and hence doesn’t apply for social security allowance. Either because of this or a belief that the outcome is not worth the effort, a lot of people don’t apply for Social security Allowance. Regardless, this allowance is helpful for a lot of people so it is necessary to know about this.
As you may have guessed, there are different types of social security allowance as people become unable to earth due to various reasons. Because of this, you should know about the types and the criteria first.
1. Types and Eligibility Criteria For Social Security Allowance
There are a lot of types of social security allowance. As we have mentioned, people become unable to earn due to various reasons. However since the government cannot provide an allowance for each of the cases, this has been divided into 4 general categories.
1. Allowances for Single Women
Keeping the debate about single women not being able to earn aside, let’s just accept the fact that the government has provisions for single women. That being said not every single woman can get the allowance. For that one has to meet one of these two criteria to be eligible.
Allowances for Widowed Women
If the husband of the woman is dead i.e she is a widow, some amount of money is allocated to her from the government as her allowance. For her to be eligible, she has to meet the following criteria
- She can prove that her husband is dead with the death certificate of her husband
- She has to be from the local area
- If she is not from the local area, she has to either go to her native place or provide the migration certificate proving her migration to the said area
Allowances for Unmarried Women
While this may sound simple, this is a bit more complicated. If we follow this to the word, it would mean that all the women that remain single would be eligible for this allowance. So to be eligible for this allowance, a single woman has to meet some specific criteria which are as follows:
- She has to cross 60 years of age
- She needs to be a citizen of Nepal
- The Tole Sachib has to prove that she has remained unmarried for her entire life.
These are the criteria for a single woman to be eligible for the social security allowance. As you may have guessed, the situation where one gets this allowance is pretty dire. The rest of the cases are similar to this one as well.
2. Allowances for Dalit
As sad as it is, there is still caste discrimination in Nepa and this doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. Due to this very caste discrimination, the Nepal government has to arrange a fund for a specific caste. Without going too much into the details about why it exists, let’s talk about the criteria one has to meet for one to be eligible to get the social security allowance.
- S/he has to be above 60 years of age.
- S/he has to be of a Dalit Caste
- If the cast cannot be determined straight from his/her citizenship, s/he has to apply in the Dalit Mahasangh and get the approval letter from there
This allowance is not well known to the public, as it is a sensitive topic to talk about caste. So more often than not, many people who are eligible for this type of social security fund are unaware of this.
3. Allowances for Disabled
If there was any type of allowance that one could guess from the definition, it would have to be social security allowances for the disabled. However, as you know by now, this is just one among many types of allowances. Regardless, as you may have guessed, one cannot just claim this allowance and needs to be eligible. The eligibility criteria are:
- One needs to be a citizen of Nepal
- S/he needs to be a local (if not they have to provide a migration certificate)
- They have to provide proof of disability as not all disabilities are visible from the surface (such as paralysis from a neurological disorder and mental disorders)
Now, this is further divided into two categories – Completely disabled get red identification cards and partially disabled get blue ones. Partial disability is further divided into sections ka, kha, ga and gha as well.
Although most people know about this social security allowance, not many know many details.
4. Allowance for Elderly
Along with the Social social security allowance for the disabled, this is another one that comes into the mind of a lot of people. That being said, one has to note that not just any elder person can get this fund. First of all, one has to reach the legal age of being elderly. So coming from that let’s look at the criteria that a person needs to fulfill for him/.her to get this elderly allowance.
- S/he needs to be a Nepali citizen.
- S/he has to cross 70 years of age as per his/her citizenship
So as per this criteria, one is an elderly in this country only after s/he crosses 70 years of age.
Now, with this, we have summarised the criteria that one has to fulfill in order to be eligible to apply for the social security allowances. Along with that, we have also summarised the documents required to apply as well.
2. Required Documents and Allowances Given
Since we have already mentioned all the required documents above, here we will just be listing them out. Along with this, here we will mention how much money does one receives as an allowance as well.
For single women
Widow
- Death certificate of her late husband
- Her citizenship
- Migration certificate (optional)
Unmarried
- Her citizenship
- Letter of proof for her marital state
Allowance received per month – Rs 2000
For Dalit
- His/Her Citizenship
- Approval from Dalit Mahasangh
- Migration Certificate (Optional)
Allowance received per month – Rs 2000
Disabled
- His/Her Citizenship
- Proof of Disability
- Migration Certificate (Optional)
Allowance received per month
- Completely Disabled – Rs 3000
- Partially Disabled
- Group ka – Rs 3000
- Group Kha – 1600
- Group Ga – Nil
- Group Gha – Nil
Elderly
- His/Her citizenship
- Migration Certificate (Optional)
Allowance received per month – Rs 3000
By this point, you now know the documents required and the amount of allowance given to each individual under each criterion. However, we have to admit that the amount is rather small and barely enough to act as a pocket change for most.
3. Core process to Apply and receive Social Security Allowance
Now once you know the eligibility criteria, required documents, and the allocated funds for this type of allowance, you should be ready to apply. Although cases may vary depending on the circumstances, the core process remains the same and can be divided into 5 basic steps.
Step 1 – Fill the application forms
Step 2 – Submit the required documents along with your photo
Step 3 – Receive the account card with 13 digit verification number and your photo
Step 4 – Open a bank account in the allocated bank for the transfer of Allowances
Step 5 – Go there personally to receive the allowances.
While this is being said it is important to know that not all those who apply for and get approved for Social security allowance can go receive them personally. In such cases, a representative from the Ward is chosen to deliver the amount personally to the recipient.
In the past anyone related to the recipient could receive the funds, however, due to the abuse of this system, the current system came to practice.
Side note, it will take 7-10 working days for the account card to arrive under normal circumstances.
4. Fees required
Finally, before applying you also need to know that some remunerations fees are needed to apply for these allowances. This may sound a bit counterintuitive as these allowances are given to those who are unable to earn but do keep in mind that a lot of those who receive the allowance still have descendants who can pay the fees or next of kin and it is a one-time payment. So the fee required goes as follows
Single Woman – Rs 1000
Dalit – Rs 1000
Disabled – Nil
Elderly – Rs 1000
Final Thoughts
With this, we cover everything we need on a general level. All of the things here are mentioned with the assumption of an Ideal Scenario. However, we all know that in practical life, ideal scenarios are few and far in between. For that, we will be covering different case scenarios individually at a later date.
To know more about Social Security Allowance law, click here.
So in summary, Social Security Allowances are the funds given to those who are unable to earn by the government. However, the eligibility criteria for different cases can be a bit hard to understand. We hope that we cleared some of your queries with this article.
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