SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 21 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 3 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 11 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Which government scheme aims to provide financial support to senior citizens who may have lost their means of sustenance?

(a)Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS)
(b)Atal Pension Yojana (APY)
(c)Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana (PMVVY)
(d)National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP)

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS) pays a monthly pension to people aged 60 and above from below-poverty-line households.

It is non-contributory: the beneficiary pays nothing in. That is the support a senior citizen who has lost their means of sustenance needs → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Atal Pension Yojana (APY) — Atal Pension Yojana is contributory. Workers join between 18 and 40, pay in through their working years and draw ₹1,000 to ₹5,000 a month from 60. It builds a pension from savings, which the stem's senior citizen does not have.
(c)
Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana (PMVVY) — Under PMVVY, run by LIC, a senior citizen paid a lump sum to buy an assured pension. The pension was a return on the buyer's own lump sum, so it assumed savings the stem's senior citizen has lost.
(d)
National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) — NSAP is the umbrella programme, not the scheme. It holds IGNOAPS alongside widow and disability pensions and a family benefit, so the old-age scheme itself is the precise answer.

Concept

The National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP), launched in 1995, was built for destitute people: those with little or no regular means of subsistence from their own income or from family support. That definition is the stem's 'lost their means of sustenance'.

Its old-age component is IGNOAPS, for BPL persons aged 60 and above. The Centre pays ₹200 a month from 60 to 79 and ₹500 from 80, and states may add their own share on top.

If NSAP felt right, you had the right family. The stem asks for the scheme that supports senior citizens, and inside NSAP that is IGNOAPS. NSAP also covers widows and persons with disabilities.

Key facts

NSAP was launched in 1995 and is run by the Ministry of Rural Development.
NSAP's old-age scheme was renamed IGNOAPS in 2007.
In 2011 the IGNOAPS age limit was lowered from 65 to 60.
Central assistance under IGNOAPS is ₹200 a month for ages 60 to 79 and ₹500 from age 80.

Study next

The other NSAP components: IGNWPS, IGNDPS, NFBS and AnnapurnaArticle 41, the Directive Principle on public assistance in old agePradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan, the contributory pension for unorganised workers

Common traps

Choosing NSAP because it sounds broader: the umbrella holds several schemes, and the stem describes the one for the elderly.
Choosing APY or PMVVY because they carry the word pension: both need the person to pay in first.

Here the scheme is described by its purpose, and the options mix a non-contributory pension with contributory ones.

Pensions are also asked at 23 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.10, which keys Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan for unorganised workers and offers Atal Pension Yojana as a distractor.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: General Policy — all 218 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.