The Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare (DoPPW), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, began its Nationwide Digital Life Certificate Campaign 5.0 on 1 November 2026. Running until 30 November in 2,000 districts and cities, the campaign aims to generate 2.30 crore Digital Life Certificates (DLCs), including 1.50 crore through Face Authentication.
DoPPW calls it the biggest DLC campaign it has run. Pensioners must submit a life certificate every year to keep receiving their pension, and the drive is meant to let them do it digitally instead of queuing at a bank or pension office. It is the latest in a run of moves to digitise pension services, such as Assam’s paperless FinAssam pension processing.
What Digital Life Certificate Campaign 5.0 covers
According to the department’s release of 30 October 2026, guidelines for the campaign were notified through an Office Memorandum dated 13 August 2026. DoPPW is taking a whole-of-government approach, with these partners:
- 19 pension disbursing banks and India Post Payments Bank (IPPB)
- 785 district post offices
- 56 pensioners’ welfare associations
- Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and UIDAI teams for technical support
- Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA), Railways, Department of Telecommunications, EPFO and state governments
Face Authentication at the centre
The campaign’s main focus is Aadhaar-based Face Authentication. A pensioner can generate a DLC with only a smartphone camera, on both Android and iOS, so they need neither a fingerprint scanner nor a visit to an office. The department says this makes the process quicker and easier for elderly pensioners. UIDAI has reported strong growth in face-based checks, as Elets covered when Aadhaar face authentication hit a record high in June 2025.
Camps will run in ‘Utsav’ mode, offering health check-ups and Aadhaar updation for pensioners alongside DLC generation. Doorstep services will be available where needed, and grievance officers will handle DLC complaints with an immediate-resolution approach. Senior DoPPW officials will review progress on the ground in identified states and attend mega camps in areas with large numbers of pensioners. Outreach will run through Doordarshan, All India Radio, PIB, SMS alerts, jingles, short films and the hashtag #DLCCampaign5.
How the campaign has grown
The saturation target builds on last year’s results. DoPPW reported that DLC Campaign 4.0, held from 1 to 30 November 2025, produced 1.54 crore DLCs. More than 91 lakh of these, over 60 per cent, came through Face Authentication, which the department said was a 230-fold rise on the third campaign. Pensioners aged 80 and above submitted more than 11 lakh DLCs.
In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on 2 April 2026, Union Minister of State Dr Jitendra Singh said 1.90 crore DLCs were generated between 1 April 2025 and 26 March 2026, of which 1.16 crore used Face Authentication. Digital services for retirees have expanded alongside welfare measures such as the 3% Dearness Allowance hike for central government employees and pensioners. Other public institutions are also moving routine services onto phones, including EPFO’s new WhatsApp services for PF balance and passbook.
Key takeaways
- Digital Life Certificate Campaign 5.0 runs from 1 to 30 November 2026 in 2,000 districts and cities.
- The target is 2.30 crore DLCs, with 1.50 crore of them through smartphone Face Authentication.
- Banks, IPPB, post offices, UIDAI, MeitY, EPFO and state governments are partners in the drive.
FAQ
How can pensioners submit a Digital Life Certificate during the campaign?
Pensioners can generate a DLC through Aadhaar-based Face Authentication on an Android or iOS smartphone, or get help at camps run by banks, IPPB and post offices. Doorstep service is available where needed.
When does DLC Campaign 5.0 end?
The campaign runs from 1 November to 30 November 2026.
Source: Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions release via PIB, 30 October 2026; DLC Campaign 4.0 outcomes, PIB, 1 December 2025.
Featured image: Dr Jitendra Singh with pensioners at a Pension Adalat of the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare, New Delhi (file photo, 2018). Photo: PIB / Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions (GODL-India, via Wikimedia Commons)