Pradhan Mantri Samajik Sahayata Yojana Gets Rs 53,428 Crore

India’s oldest social assistance programme has a new name and a wider reach. On 14 October 2026 the Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, cleared a Department of Rural Development proposal to carry the National Social Assistance Programme forward for five years, from 2026-27 to 2030-31, with an outlay of Rs 53,428 crore. The programme is now the Pradhan Mantri Samajik Sahayata Yojana, and each of its four sub-schemes has been renamed with it.

The four new names

• Old age pension → Pradhan Mantri Vridhavastha Pension Yojana
• Widow pension → Pradhan Mantri Vidhawa Pension Yojana
• Disability pension → Pradhan Mantri Divyangjan Pension Yojana
• Family benefit scheme → Pradhan Mantri Parivar Labh Yojana

The old age pension, the widow pension and the one-time family benefit paid on the death of a household’s main earner continue exactly as before. The one real change is in the disability pension.

What changed in the disability pension

Eligibility now rests on the 40 per cent benchmark disability of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, replacing the earlier bar of 80 per cent severe disability drawn from the National Trust Act, 1999. The minimum age of 18 years has gone, so a child qualifies from birth. Central assistance rises from Rs 300 to Rs 375 a month for those aged 0 to 79 years, and from Rs 500 to Rs 625 a month at 80 years and above. Coverage under this sub-scheme jumps from 8.33 lakh to 27.48 lakh beneficiaries. Revised guidelines are to be issued and put in place within three months.

The programme itself

The National Social Assistance Programme was launched on 15 August 1995 and gives effect to Article 41 of the Constitution, which asks the State to provide public assistance in unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement. It is a centrally sponsored scheme funded fully by the Centre, carrying 100 per cent central assistance, and it covers rural and urban areas alike, with a below-poverty-line household as the common condition. States and Union Territories run it mainly through their social welfare departments, with Gram Panchayats and municipalities identifying beneficiaries and payment largely by direct benefit transfer.

The central rate is a floor on which each State builds its own addition. Census 2011 counted 2.68 crore persons with disabilities, 2.21 per cent of the population, and the Schedule to the 2016 Act lists 21 types of disability. Since that Act came into force on 19 April 2017, its benchmark has governed disability entitlements in higher education, government jobs, and land and housing; the Cabinet decision brings the pension, introduced in February 2009 as the Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme, on to the same measure.