8th Pay Commission: How is hike in pension amount calculated? Check details

Many retired central government employees are waiting to see how the 8th Pay Commission will impact their pensions, now that the Centre has approved the commission’s Terms of Reference (ToR) and given an 18-month timeline for the report. Although pay commission discussions usually revolve around serving employees, pensioners outnumber them. As per the government’s Pensioners’ Portal, there were 68.72 lakh pensioners as of October 30 across civil, defence, telecommunications, railways and postal departments. By comparison, the number of central government employees stands at about 50 lakh. The size of the pension increase will largely depend on the fitment factor, the multiplier used to revise salaries and pensions under each pay commission. In the 7th Pay Commission, this factor