Senior Citizen Savings Scheme (SCSS) interest rate for October-December 2025: Announcement today

What is the eligibility for investing in SCSS?

A senior citizen aged 60 years or above can open an SCSS account and invest. The scheme also allows investments from retired civilian employees above 55 years and below 60 years, and retired defence employees aged above 50 years and below 60 years.

As per Senior Citizen Savings Scheme Rules 2019, senior citizens can open the SCSS account either individually or jointly with their spouses. However, the total amount of the deposit in a joint SCSS account is attributable to the first account holder.

Currently, the SCSS scheme is offering 8.2% interest per annum. The maximum amount of investment that an individual can make under this scheme is ₹30 lakh. However, senior citizen couples can invest ₹30 lakh each in their separate SCSS accounts.

The interest on SCSS deposits is payable from the date of deposit to March 31/September 30/December 31 in the first instance, and thereafter, interest is payable on April 1, July 1, October 1, and January 1. (Read this for more details on interest payment under SCSS).

SCSS interest rate: No change since April 2023

The interest rate for SCSS deposits has remained unchanged at 8.2% since April 1, 2023. The scheme is popular among millions of senior citizens and retirees for offering a guaranteed periodic income against the deposit of a lump sum.

It is expected that the Finance Ministry may revise the SCSS interest rate, along with other small savings schemes due to the falling secondary market yield of Central Government securities (G-secs).

Small savings schemes like SCSS, NSC, PPF, SSY track the yields of G-secs of comparable maturities in the secondary market.

Since January 2025, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI has cut the repo rate by 100 basis points (1%). Meanwhile, the 10-year G-sec yield has decreased to 6.563 as of September 29, 2025, from 6.779 on January 1, 2025.

The Government decides interest rates for small savings schemes, such as SCSS, based on the recommendations of the Shyamala Gopinath Committee.

The Committee was set up in 2010. It had recommended to consider the secondary market yield of Central Government Securities (G-Sec) of comparable maturities along with a 0.25% spread for deciding the interest rates for various small savings schemes. This means the interest rate for SCSS should be determined based on the prevailing 5-year G-Sec yield in the secondary market plus 0.25%.

However, the final decision to revise the small savings scheme interest rate is to be made by the Finance Ministry.