EPFO EO/AO 2023 General Ability Test · Question 32 of 120

Correct — C, (c) Employees’ Pension Scheme. The booklet prints the 'not' in bold italic: the item asks for the scheme that does NOT belong. Schedule I to the Unorganised Workers' Social Security Act, 2008 lists the social security schemes covered by that Act, and the other three options are all on it. The Employees' Pension Scheme is not, and the reason is structural rather than accidental. The Employees' Pension Scheme, 1995 is framed under section 6A of the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 and serves members of the provident fund — that is, employees of covered establishments in the ORGANISED sector. The 2008 Act is built for everyone those statutes leave out. Its own definition says so: section 2(m) defines an unorganised worker as a home-based worker, self-employed worker or wage worker in the unorganised sector, and includes a worker in the organised sector who is not covered by any of the enactments listed in Schedule II — and the EPF & MP Act, 1952 is one of those Schedule II enactments. A worker covered by the EPF Act is therefore, by definition, not an unorganised worker for the purposes of this Act, so a scheme made under the EPF Act cannot be one of its social security schemes. The two Acts are on opposite sides of the same boundary line.

• (a)National Family Benefit Scheme — This IS in Schedule I, so it cannot answer a 'not' stem. The National Family Benefit Scheme is a component of the National Social Assistance Programme and provides a one-time lump-sum assistance to a household below the poverty line on the death of its primary breadwinner. It is exactly the kind of contribution-free, State-funded benefit the 2008 Act was designed to bring under one statutory roof.
• (b)Janshree Bima Yojana — This IS in Schedule I. Janshree Bima Yojana is a group insurance scheme for persons below or marginally above the poverty line in identified occupational groups. Schedule I lists it alongside Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana, the parallel insurance scheme for rural landless households, so a candidate who recognises either name should recognise that both are inside the Act, not outside it.
• (d)Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana — This IS in Schedule I. RSBY was the health insurance scheme launched by the Ministry of Labour and Employment for families below the poverty line, providing cover of up to Rs. 30,000 per family per year on a smart card. Being administered by the very Ministry that administers the 2008 Act, it is one of the schemes most securely inside the Schedule.

The Unorganised Workers' Social Security Act, 2008 did not invent a new benefit. What it did was gather existing welfare schemes into a statutory Schedule, create Boards to advise on and monitor them, and give unorganised workers a registration and identity-card mechanism to reach them. Schedule I is that gathering: it lists ten schemes, among them the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme, the National Family Benefit Scheme, Janani Suraksha Yojana, the Handloom Weavers' and Handicraft Artisans' Comprehensive Welfare Schemes, pension to master craft persons, the National Scheme for Welfare of Fishermen, Janshree Bima Yojana, Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana and Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana. Read them together and the Act's coverage logic becomes visible — old age, death of the breadwinner, maternity, occupational welfare, life insurance and health — the same risks the organised sector meets through EPF, EPS, ESI and gratuity, met instead through budget-funded schemes.

For an EPFO officer this is a jurisdictional question dressed as a list question. The organised-sector statutes and the 2008 Act divide the workforce between them, and the divider is Schedule II of the 2008 Act. Knowing that the EPF Act sits in Schedule II answers this item without memorising Schedule I at all, which is why the card teaches the boundary rather than the list. The habit rewarded is asking 'which statute made this scheme ?' before asking 'have I seen this name before ?'

• Schedule I to the Unorganised Workers' Social Security Act, 2008 lists the social security schemes under that Act — ten in all.
• Schedule I includes the National Family Benefit Scheme, Janshree Bima Yojana, Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana and Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana.
• It also includes the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme, Janani Suraksha Yojana, the Handloom Weavers' and Handicraft Artisans' Comprehensive Welfare Schemes, pension to master craft persons, and the National Scheme for Welfare of Fishermen and Training and Extension.
• The Employees' Pension Scheme, 1995 is framed under section 6A of the EPF & MP Act, 1952 and covers organised-sector employees who are provident fund members.
• Section 2(m) defines 'unorganised worker' to include an organised-sector worker NOT covered by any enactment in Schedule II.
• Schedule II lists six enactments, among them the EPF & MP Act, 1952, the ESI Act, 1948, the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 and the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972.
• Section 3 requires the Central Government to formulate welfare schemes on life and disability cover, health and maternity benefits and old age protection.
• Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana provided health cover of up to Rs. 30,000 per BPL family per year through a smart card.

• Picking a scheme because its name is unfamiliar. Every option here is a real scheme; the question is which statute owns it.
• Assuming any scheme with 'Bima' or 'Swasthya' in the name is an unorganised-sector scheme and any with 'Employees' is not — that works here, but it is a coincidence of naming, not a rule.
• Forgetting the bold-italic 'not' and marking the first scheme you can confirm is in Schedule I.
• Confusing the Employees' Pension Scheme, 1995 with the Employees' Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme, 1976 — both are EPF Act schemes, and neither is in Schedule I.

The 2008 Act is asked either as a Schedule I list item like this one, as a composition question on the Social Security Boards, or through the section 2(m) definition. All three are really the same question about where the organised sector ends, which is the boundary an Enforcement Officer polices.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Employees' Pension Scheme, 1995 is framed under which provision of the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 ?

  • (a)Section 5
  • (b)Section 6A
  • (c)Section 6C
  • (d)Section 17

  Answer(b) Section 6A

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under section 2(m) of the Unorganised Workers' Social Security Act, 2008, a worker in the organised sector is treated as an unorganised worker if he is :

  • (a)Employed on daily wages
  • (b)Not covered by any of the enactments mentioned in Schedule II
  • (c)Earning less than the minimum wage
  • (d)Working in an establishment employing fewer than ten persons

  Answer(b) Not covered by any of the enactments mentioned in Schedule II