Army veterans face problems with pension portal SPARSH 

"The response of SPARSH is improper. There are many issues, such as incorrect data of pensioners that need to get updated. But it takes many months, the only agency that can correct the data is in Prayagraj, which is slow and ineffective in many instances. Where do we go then?", Lt Col RK Bhardwaj (Retd) told Moneycontrol.

SPARSH is administered by the Defence Accounts Department (DAD), through the PCDA (Pensions) in Prayagraj and caters to all three services, and allied organisations as a centralised-integrated system for automation of sanction and disbursement of defence pension.

Another army veteran, not willing to be identified, said: "I had to physically go to the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts Pensions (PCDAP) office in Prayagraj (back in 2023) to submit my life certificate, as the SPARSH portal was not accepting it. I had to wait for three months for the pension to restart."

"There are lakhs of jawans and their spouses (who are not adequately literate), who are not tech savvy. They stay in remote areas. They are unable to resolve their grievances," said the person.

Former NSG commando and air defence veteran Col Anupam Jaitely (Retd), said that prior to 2022, when SPARSH got fully operational, banks were responsible of disbursing pensions, and any issue of mismatch in data, life certificate etc. (of pensioners) was handled by banks. "Since they had branches across the country including remote areas, grievance redressal was much easier and faster," he told Moneycontrol, adding that the current system is ineffective and tiresome.

The problem with SPARSH: What changed on defence pensions

Prior to 2022, banks used to issue Pension Payment Orders (PPOs) which had details of the pensioners along with nominees. This document was used to identify the pensioners and disburse the appropriate amount every month. This was done through the banks where the pensioners maintained their accounts.

Post the implementation of SPARSH, the all the PPO data was migrated to the portal. "This precisely led to discrepancies in disbursement of pensions," an official aware of the matter told Moneycontrol.

While migration of pensioners, inputs of many individuals were added manually, which lead to mismatch of data between SPARSH and the erstwhile bank PPOs, explained sources. This is why, the pensioners are facing issues with receiving pensions and getting their data rectified.

"We are trying to add more manpower so that grievances can be addressed smoothly and timely. We are in constant communication with ex-servicemen" said the official.

'SPARSH is unresponsive, slow'

Of India’s total defence pensioners – nearly 32 lakh – about 20% of pensioners are facing issues with rectifying their data on the SPARSH portal, according to an internal DAD document. In October 2024, the PCDAP office had admitted that about 6.5 lakh cases remain unresolved. Specifically, this meant that in many cases, data related to rank, name, qualifying service, date of birth, spouse name, handicapped children disability etc. needed correction.

In an official presentation (ppt), seen by Moneycontrol, the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts Pensions (PCDAP) office had admitted that in many cases 'SPARSH PPO' could not be generated. "Even if DOB has been updated, additional pension can’t commence. The type of pensions may be incorrect…there could be difficulty in processing IFP (Initiate Family Pension), and in payment of previous arrears, if any due," the ppt, dated October 2024, had said.

There are also delays in revised pension disbursement, according to the 'one rank, one pension' scheme, as some stay unresolved for as long as 18 months. The OROP launched in 2015, brought into effect a uniform pension system for all retired defense personnel, ensuring that the same rank with the same length of service would get equal pension benefits. This addressed the disparity in pension benefits faced by former soldiers due to inflation, changes in pay scales, and the evolving nature of service conditions over time.

SPARSH was launched to simplify the process and do away with any intermediaries, crediting pension directly into the bank accounts of pensioners. The portal processes pension claims and credits pension directly into the bank accounts of defence pensioners without relying on any external intermediary.  On SPARSH, pensioners are able to view their pension related information, access services and register complaints for redressal of grievances, if any, relating to their pension matters.

The migration of pensioners to SPARSH began in a phased manner, with the first phase starting on November 17, 2021. This initial phase primarily focused on migrating post-2016 defence pensioners. The second phase, involving the migration of pre-2016 pensioners, commenced on August 23, 2022. As of now, about 1 lakh pensioners still need to be migrated, say sources.

An official release from the defence ministry, of March 2025, said that in the erstwhile legacy system, pensions to the Armed Forces were sanctioned by three different pension sanctioning agencies (PSAs) –based in in Prayagraj, Mumbai and New Delhi. The disbursement of pension was made by over 45,000 branches of public and private sector banks, state treasury offices, and post offices.

However, multiple agencies, lack of technical expertise, siloed work approach and lack of coordination led to incorrect pay outs to pensioners due to delayed or incorrect or non-revision of pension with widows bearing the brunt of this problem, getting fixed at minimum pension rates, the release noted.

"To mitigate such problems, SPARSH was conceptualized and implemented successfully where sanctioning of the pension and its disbursement directly to the account of the pension was brought onto a single platform," it said.

Old is Gold?

Ex-servicemen, nonetheless, say the old system was better as grievance redressal was faster. At present, many service centres of SPARSH are ineffective in rectifying error within due time, which ideally should happen in 15 days. The service centre has to get approval from the PDCAP office in Prayagraj, which takes months, for any data update.

The government says that currently 201 offices of the DAD, branches of 16 banks, and 4.63 lakh common service centres (CSCs) are operational across the length and breadth of the country to help pensioners. But, according to ex-servicemen, these offices are ineffective in handling complaints, as the final authority is PCDAP, which is slow. For example, in NCR Delhi, there are two such centres to address complaints.

Moneycontrol emails sent to the Ministry of Defence and the Indian Army on this issue didn't elicit a response. This story will be updated as and when a response is received.

“Imagine if a soldier is living in a village in the hills and there is an error on SPARSH. How will he get its fixed? He will have to keep running around. Earlier, he could just go to his local bank branch which was near his house to get things sorted,” another senior veteran told Moneycontrol. In the case of bank branches, some of them "don't even know that they are the SPARSH Service Centre," one former army veteran told Moneycontrol.