Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday reviewed the progress made under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) insurance scheme for health workers fighting COVID-19 and asked insurers to accelerate the disbursement of pending claims under the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY).
During a virtual meeting with the heads of insurance companies, she stressed on the importance of streamlining the process and documentation requirements under the schemes so that the claims are disbursed speedily, an official statement said.
Sitharaman said that to address the issue of delays arising out of states sending documents for the PMGKP insurance scheme for health workers, a new system has been put in place whereby a simple certificate from the District Magistrate (DM) and endorsed by the nodal state health authority will be sufficient to process these claims. She highlighted the efforts of New India Assurance Co. Ltd which has been entrusted to manage the scheme and cited the example of Ladakh where a claim was settled within four hours of receiving the DM certificate and urged to maintain a similar approach in future. “Finance minister also directed the states to take up COVID claims of health workers on priority and make maximum use of this simplified mechanism that has been put in place,” the ministry statement said.
Under PMJJBY scheme, 4.65 lakh claims of value Rs 9,307 crore have been paid. Since the beginning of the pandemic (April 1, 2020) till date, 1.2 lakh claims have been paid, amounting to Rs 2,403 crore, at a disposal rate of 99 per cent. The finance minister emphasised that insurance company officials should continue being sympathetic while providing services to nominees of deceased policy holders, especially during pandemic period. She also appreciated the recent efforts made by insurance companies and banks in speedy processing of claims.
During the pandemic, the insurance companies said claims are being processed by insurers within 7 days instead of 30, end-to-end digitisation of the claim settlement process between banks and insurance companies is worked on.
According to government officials, the PMJJBY and PMSBY were launched in 2015 to provide life and accidental insurance covers respectively of Rs 2 lakh each to all beneficiaries enrolled under the schemes through their bank with annual premium of only Rs 330 and Rs 12, respectively. The objective is to ensure that more and more persons working in the unorganised segment get the much-needed financial security of Rs 4 lakh by enrolling themselves under PMJJBY and PMSBY at a premium of less than Re 1 per day.
Through the government’s financial inclusion programme, while over 42 crore bank accounts have been opened under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), cumulative enrolments under PMJJBY and PMSBY are Rs 10 crore and Rs 23 crore respectively. Through Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-mobile linking, the beneficiaries of different government schemes are receiving the government support directly in their bank accounts.
