What are the benefits of APY (Atal Pension Yojana)?

Atal Pension Yojana (APY) is a pension scheme backed by the government with the aim to assist and serve the unorganized sector like gardeners, maids, delivery boys, etc. People who work in private sectors, or working with an organization that does not provide pension benefit can opt for APY, too. APY vital goal is to provide a sense of security to the Indian citizens by ensuring them not to worry about accidents, illness or disease in old age as this scheme will back them and their expenses. 

Atal Pension Yojana (APY) provides various benefits to its subscribers. The following are some of the key benefits of APY pension scheme:

1. It's a low-risk retirement option because the benefits are guaranteed by the Government of India.
2. There's a guaranteed pension ranging from Rs. 1000 to Rs. 5000 depending on the subscriber's contributions.
3. The contributions made will get tax benefits under Section 80CCD. Under Section 80 CCD, the maximum limit of deduction available is Rs. 2 Lakhs, including the additional deduction of Rs. 50,000 under sub-section 1B.
4. The pension would be available to the spouse, in case of death of the subscriber.
5. If subscriber and the spouse both pass away, then the pension corpus would be returned to the nominee.
6. The Government of India also contributes a maximum of Rs1000 or 50% of the contribution, whichever is lower, towards the scheme. However, only those individuals are eligible who don’t pay tax and are not covered under any social security scheme.
7. It's easy to subscribe to the scheme for the Indian residents be it a self-employed or salaried.
8. APY accepts subscription from those who're also contributing to other private/government-backed pension schemes.
9. This is a flexible subscription because the pension amount can be upgraded or downgraded based on the choice of the subscriber.
10. The subscriber has higher flexibility by having options to subscribe on a monthly, quarterly or half-yearly basis.
11. The APY scheme is open to all, organized and unorganized sector workers.

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