As per SBI website : "Bank makes pension payments on behalf of the Government to the retired employees of Central and State Governments, Defence, Railways etc. All pension payments are subject to rules and procedures prescribed by the Government(s), RBI and the concerned departments/organisations from time to time. The pension will be credited by the branch to the pensioner's savings or current account during the last four working days of the month. The pension for the month of March will be credited on or after 1st working day of April. The pension will not be paid in cash or through a joint account"
Mrs......retired from .....(GOI) maintains her SB account with SBI,...Branch. Her pension is credited regularly as stated in the website : during last four working days. She gets pension for March on 1st working day of April. She confirmed that she got her pension late (may be on second working of April) only once in last ten years.
Mr..... retired from GOI maintains SB account with CBI. His pension is credited on first working day of every month including for the month of March. There are two or three occasions during last ten years when the pension credit was delayed by one or two days.
The delays can be attributed to some (human) technical error.
As confirmed from a long time RBI friend (a pensioner) that RBI pensioners were getting their pension credited to their account on the last working day of the month except for the month of June. Since the introduction of five days week in RBI (excepting few departments) few years back, the pensioners get their pension credited on the last working day of the month except for month of June. If the last day of the month happens to be holiday, Sunday or Saturday, the pension is invariably credited on Friday or previous working day. As the closing of accounts of RBI is on 30th June, RBI pays salary and pension almost a week in advance.( Banks do not have five days a week. They are closed on second and fourth Saturdays since September, 2015)
Incidentally, there are GOI/RBI instructions that the banks can credit pension to a joint account with spouse.
Our leaders may take a leaf from what is stated above and from what Shri. S.K.Mazumder has suggested. There seems to no difficulty to release/pay pension one or two days in advance or on the last working day of banks and all twelve months. All depends on the Chairman / the Top Brass /the Management. They may take proactive stance. It is high time to turn pro pensioners.
SN