Assistant Provident Fund Commissioner (APFC) 2016 recruitment test, advertisement 170. Transcribed from the Commission's own booklet (series A, B-CRHE-O-PAPA); answer as per the official UPSC final answer key. This question is in Part B. Answer last reviewed 24 August 2026.

Consider the following statements in respect of Atal Pension Yojana : 1. Beneficiary must be in the age group of 18 to 40 years. 2. Beneficiary will receive the pension only after he attains the age of 60 years. 3. After the death of a beneficiary, his spouse continues to receive the pension. 4. No nominee of the beneficiary is permitted. Which of the above statements are correct ?

(a)3 and 4 only
(b)1, 3 and 4 only
(c)1, 2 and 3 only
(d)1, 2, 3 and 4

Answer

Why

Correct — C, (c) 1, 2 and 3 only.

Only ONE of the four statements is false, and it is statement 4. Because three of the four options include statement 4, a candidate who can rule that one statement out has finished the question without needing to verify anything else. That is the whole architecture of the item.

STATEMENT 1 — "Beneficiary must be in the age group of 18 to 40 years." TRUE. Entry into the Atal Pension Yojana is open to any Indian citizen between eighteen and forty years of age who holds a savings bank account. The upper limit of forty is not arbitrary: the scheme requires a minimum contribution period of twenty years, and since the pension begins at sixty, a subscriber joining at forty contributes for exactly twenty years. Age forty is therefore the last age at which the twenty-year rule can still be satisfied.

STATEMENT 2 — "Beneficiary will receive the pension only after he attains the age of 60 years." TRUE. Sixty is the vesting age of the scheme, and the guaranteed monthly pension — one of ₹ 1,000, ₹ 2,000, ₹ 3,000, ₹ 4,000 or ₹ 5,000, according to the contribution made and the age at entry — becomes payable then and not before. Exit before sixty is permitted only in limited circumstances, and it returns the accumulated contributions rather than starting a pension.

STATEMENT 3 — "After the death of a beneficiary, his spouse continues to receive the pension." TRUE, and it is one of the distinctive features of the scheme. On the subscriber's death the SAME monthly pension is payable to the spouse for the remainder of the spouse's life. The pension does not stop with the subscriber and it is not reduced.

STATEMENT 4 — "No nominee of the beneficiary is permitted." FALSE, and it is the reverse of the truth. Nomination is built into the scheme. A subscriber gives nominee details when the account is opened, and where the subscriber is married the spouse is the default nominee. On the death of BOTH the subscriber and the spouse, the accumulated pension wealth is handed over to the nominee. Far from prohibiting a nominee, the scheme depends on one to complete its benefit structure.

AN INTERNAL CHECK WORTH NOTICING. Statements 3 and 4 sit uneasily beside each other. Statement 3 says the benefit passes to a person other than the subscriber; statement 4 says no person other than the subscriber may be recorded at all. That tension is not proof — a scheme could in principle name a spouse without operating a general nomination facility — but it is a prompt to look hard at whichever of the pair is the more absolute. Statement 4 uses the words "No" and "permitted", and sweeping negatives in a statement list are worth testing first, because a single counter-instance destroys them.

So statements 1, 2 and 3 stand and statement 4 falls, which makes option (c) the answer. This item prints its question sentence directly after the numbered list, without any codes line — a construction this paper uses in about a dozen places.

Why the others are wrong

(a)3 and 4 only — This is the weakest option on the list, because it keeps the one false statement and discards the two least contestable true ones. Statement 4 is wrong: nomination is integral to the Atal Pension Yojana, the spouse being the default nominee for a married subscriber and the accumulated pension wealth passing to the nominee on the death of both subscriber and spouse. Meanwhile the option throws away statement 1, the eighteen-to-forty entry band, which is the single most frequently examined fact about the scheme, and statement 2, the vesting age of sixty, which is what makes it a pension scheme at all. A candidate who arrives here has generally read the list too quickly and been caught by the pairing of the last two statements, which look as though they belong together because both concern what happens after the subscriber's death. They do belong together thematically; one of them is simply false.
(b)1, 3 and 4 only — This option keeps the false statement 4 and drops the true statement 2, and the loss of statement 2 is the more revealing half. The vesting age of sixty is the axis of the whole scheme: contributions run to sixty, the guaranteed pension of between ₹ 1,000 and ₹ 5,000 a month begins at sixty, and the twenty-year minimum contribution period is what fixes forty as the highest permitted age of entry. Discarding it while retaining a prohibition on nominees inverts the scheme's real design. It is worth pausing on why statement 4 attracts votes at all. Some social-security instruments genuinely restrict who may receive a benefit, and a candidate who has read about schemes where the entitlement is strictly personal may generalise. The Atal Pension Yojana is not one of them; its benefit cascade runs subscriber, then spouse, then nominee, and each step of that cascade is provided for expressly.
(d)1, 2, 3 and 4 — This option accepts all four statements, which means it accepts the one that is false. It is the natural landing place for a candidate who recognises three statements as familiar and correct and then assumes, from the momentum of three, that the fourth must be right as well. The device is used repeatedly in statement-list questions, and the defence is to read every statement independently and to treat an all-inclusive option as requiring the most evidence rather than the least. Statement 4 fails on a plain fact: the Atal Pension Yojana requires nominee details at registration, treats the spouse as the default nominee where the subscriber is married, and returns the accumulated pension wealth to the nominee once both the subscriber and the spouse have died. There is a further reason to be wary of this option here — a statement framed as an absolute prohibition, using the words "No" and "permitted", is exactly the kind of claim a single counter-instance destroys, and one exists.

Concept

THE ATAL PENSION YOJANA IS INDIA'S PENSION INSTRUMENT FOR THE UNORGANISED SECTOR, and it belongs to a family that should be learnt as a family rather than one scheme at a time.

WHERE IT SITS. It was launched in 2015 alongside two insurance schemes — the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana for life cover and the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana for accident cover — under a common social-security umbrella, and all three are delivered through the subscriber's savings bank account with premiums or contributions taken by auto-debit. The Atal Pension Yojana is administered by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority through the National Pension System architecture, and it took the place of the earlier Swavalamban arrangement for unorganised workers.

WHAT MAKES IT UNUSUAL. Most modern pension arrangements, including the National Pension System itself, are DEFINED CONTRIBUTION: the subscriber pays in, the fund earns what it earns, and the pension is whatever the accumulation will buy. The Atal Pension Yojana instead promises a GUARANTEED MINIMUM MONTHLY PENSION of ₹ 1,000, ₹ 2,000, ₹ 3,000, ₹ 4,000 or ₹ 5,000, chosen by the subscriber at entry, with the contribution calculated to deliver it from the age at which he joins. If the investment returns fall short of what the guarantee assumes, the Government makes good the difference; if they exceed it, the subscriber benefits. That guarantee is the scheme's defining feature and the thing most worth remembering about it.

THE BENEFIT CASCADE, which is what statements 3 and 4 are probing. On reaching sixty, the subscriber receives the chosen monthly pension for life. On his death, the SAME pension is payable to the spouse for the spouse's life. On the death of both, the accumulated pension wealth as at the subscriber's sixtieth year is returned to the NOMINEE. Three stages, and a nominee is required for the third.

THE ARITHMETIC OF ENTRY. Contributions must run for at least twenty years, so joining at eighteen gives forty-two years of contributions and the cheapest monthly outlay for any given pension, while joining at forty gives exactly twenty and the dearest. The younger the entrant, the smaller the instalment, which is the standard actuarial point about compound accumulation and a fact these papers like to test through comparative options.

A CHANGE SINCE THIS PAPER WAS SET. The eligibility rule has been narrowed: an income-tax payer may no longer join the scheme. A candidate answering questions on the Atal Pension Yojana today should carry both the original design and that later restriction.

Three items on this paper deal with the schemes launched under the same social-security umbrella — the Atal Pension Yojana here, the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana a couple of questions later, and the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana further on. That grouping is not accidental. EPFO recruits officers who will administer contributory social security, and the flagship schemes for the unorganised sector are the part of current affairs that lies closest to the job.

The construction of the item is worth studying because it recurs. Four statements are printed, exactly one is false, and three of the four options contain the false one. That means the whole question can be answered by identifying a SINGLE falsehood, and the fastest route is not to verify the true statements at all but to scan for the weakest link. Two features mark statement 4 out: it is the only statement framed as a prohibition, and it uses an absolute word. Absolute claims — no, never, all, only, must — are the cheapest statements for a setter to falsify and the first ones a candidate should attack.

The habit rewarded is scheme-by-scheme precision on a small number of parameters. For any social-security scheme, know the entry age band, the vesting or maturity age, the benefit amount, the premium or contribution, the regulator or administering body, and what happens on death. Six facts per scheme, kept in a single table, will answer nearly every question these papers ask about them — and it is worth dating each figure, because several of these parameters have been revised since 2016.

The stem prints the question sentence directly after the numbered list, with no codes line, which is this paper's habit in about a dozen items.

Key facts

The Atal Pension Yojana is open to Indian citizens aged 18 to 40 with a savings bank account, and contributions are taken by auto-debit from that account.
The upper entry age of 40 follows from the minimum contribution period of twenty years, since the pension vests at 60.
The guaranteed monthly pension is ₹ 1,000, ₹ 2,000, ₹ 3,000, ₹ 4,000 or ₹ 5,000, chosen at entry, and becomes payable on the subscriber attaining the age of 60.
On the subscriber's death the same monthly pension is payable to the spouse for the spouse's lifetime, without reduction.
On the death of both the subscriber and the spouse, the accumulated pension wealth is returned to the NOMINEE — which is why the claim that no nominee is permitted is false.
The scheme is administered by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority through the National Pension System architecture, and it replaced the earlier Swavalamban arrangement.
Unlike the National Pension System, the Atal Pension Yojana carries a Government guarantee of the minimum pension, with any shortfall in investment returns made good from public funds.
It was launched in 2015 together with the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana and the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, all three delivered through the bank account.
The eligibility rule has since been narrowed so that an income-tax payer may no longer join, a change made after this paper was set.

Study next

The Atal Pension Yojana in detail — entry ages, the five pension slabs, the twenty-year minimum contribution period and the exit rules before sixty.The Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana and the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, and how the three schemes divide the contingencies between them.The National Pension System and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority — Tier I and Tier II accounts, fund managers and annuitisation at exit.Defined benefit against defined contribution pensions, and where a guaranteed-minimum scheme such as this one sits between the two.Pension coverage for unorganised workers, from the Swavalamban arrangement to the present schemes, and why coverage remains the central problem.The benefit cascade in social-security schemes — subscriber, spouse, nominee — and how nomination operates under the various statutes.

Common traps

Accepting all four statements because three of them are familiar. The all-inclusive option is the standard reward for reading a list with momentum rather than one statement at a time.
Believing statement 4. Nomination is integral to the scheme, the spouse being the default nominee and the corpus passing to the nominee on the death of both.
Confusing the entry age band of 18 to 40 with the vesting age of 60, or with the entry bands of the two insurance schemes launched alongside it.
Treating the scheme as an ordinary defined-contribution pension. The minimum pension here is guaranteed, with the Government funding any shortfall.
Answering with the present eligibility rules rather than those in force when a paper was set; income-tax payers were barred from joining only later.
Assuming the spouse's pension is a reduced family pension. It is the same amount the subscriber was drawing.

Government social-security schemes are a permanent feature of EPFO papers, and the questions about them are almost always parameter questions. Expect to be asked for an age band, a premium, a benefit amount, a vesting age, an administering authority, or what happens on the death of the beneficiary — and expect those parameters to be tested through a statement list rather than a single-fact stem, because a list lets the setter probe four parameters at once.

Two devices dominate. The first is the one used here: three true statements and one false, with the false statement present in most of the options, so that the question reduces to finding a single error. The second is the reversal, where a genuine feature of one scheme is attributed to another — the accident cover described as a life cover, the entry age of one scheme applied to its sibling. Both are defeated by the same preparation, which is a compact table of parameters held scheme by scheme rather than a general impression of what the schemes do.

Within a statement list, attack the absolutes first. A statement containing "no", "only", "all" or "never" is the most fragile thing on the page, and on this item the absolute statement is the false one. Then use the option structure: when three options share a statement and one does not, the setter has told you which statement decides the question.

Related PYQs

EPFO_APFC_2016_Q102

Consider the following statements regarding the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana : 1. It is applicable for all bank account holders up to the age of 60 years. 2. It is a life insurance cover. 3. It is an accident insurance cover. 4. The insurance covers death and permanent disability due to accident. Which of the above statements are correct ?

(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 3 and 4 only
(c) 2 and 3 only
(d) 1 and 4 only

Answer(b) 3 and 4 only

The Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana on this same paper — the accident-cover member of the same group of schemes, tested through the same four-statement construction.

EPFO_APFC_2016_Q115

Consider the following statements regarding the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana : 1. It is applicable to all adults above the age group of 18 years. 2. The premium is deducted from the account holder's bank account through 'auto debit facility'. 3. The life insurance worth is decided by the account holder and he has to pay the annual premium accordingly. 4. The life insurance amount is given to the family after the death of the subscriber. Which of the above statements are correct ?

(a) 1 and 3 only
(b) 1 and 4 only
(c) 2 and 4 only
(d) 2 and 3 only

Answer(c) 2 and 4 only

The Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana on this paper, the life-cover member of the group, where the entry age band is again the fact in dispute.

EPFO_EOAO_2020_Q105

What is the minimum and maximum age at which a subscriber can join the Atal Pension Yojana ?

(a) 21 years and 58 years respectively
(b) 18 years and 40 years respectively
(c) 18 years and 50 years respectively
(d) 21 years and 60 years respectively

Answer(b) 18 years and 40 years respectively

The minimum and maximum age at which a subscriber may join the Atal Pension Yojana, asked directly on a later EPFO paper.

EPFO_EOAO_2017_Q89

Which one of the following statements is not correct for Atal Pension Yojana?

(a) There is guaranteed minimum monthly pension for the subscribers ranging between ₹ 1,000 and ₹ 5,000 per month.
(b) The benefit of minimum pension would be guaranteed by the Government of India.
(c) Government of India co-contributes 50% of the subscriber’s contribution or ₹ 1,000 per annum, whichever is lower.
(d) It is applicable to all citizens of India aged above 40 years.

Answer(d) It is applicable to all citizens of India aged above 40 years.

A negatively framed item on the Atal Pension Yojana from another EPFO sitting, asking which statement about the scheme is not correct.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Under the Atal Pension Yojana, what is the range within which a subscriber may choose the guaranteed monthly pension payable on attaining the age of 60 years ?
- (a)₹ 500 to ₹ 2,500
- (b)₹ 1,000 to ₹ 5,000
- (c)₹ 2,000 to ₹ 10,000
- (d)₹ 1,000 to ₹ 3,000
Answer(b) ₹ 1,000 to ₹ 5,000 — the subscriber chooses one of five slabs at entry, being ₹ 1,000, ₹ 2,000, ₹ 3,000, ₹ 4,000 or ₹ 5,000 a month, and the contribution is fixed to deliver the chosen slab from the age at which he joins.
practice — not a real PYQ
On the death of both an Atal Pension Yojana subscriber and the subscriber's spouse, to whom is the accumulated pension wealth of the account made over ?
- (a)It is credited back to the Government
- (b)It is made over to the nominee
- (c)It is retained by the bank holding the account
- (d)It lapses, as no further payment is provided for
Answer(b) It is made over to the nominee — the benefit cascade runs subscriber, then spouse on the same pension, then nominee for the accumulated corpus, which is why the claim that no nominee is permitted under the scheme is false.

Why