8th Pay Commission: Terms of Reference change to include pension revision in focus; DOE may decide

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) recently forwarded the issue of inclusion of pension revision of employees who retired before January 1, 2026 in the 8th CPC's ToR to the DoE.

While staff bodies have been demanding the inclusion of pension revision of pre-2026 retirees in the ToR, ever since its notification, the DoPT recently received representations from All India RMS, MMS and Postal Pensioners Association and All India Defence Employees' Federation on July 30, 2026 and August 8, 2026 respectively.

In an Office Memorandum dated August 18, 2026, the DoPT said, "The undersigned is directed to forward herewith the representations received from the following Service Associations on the subject mentioned above for action as deemed appropriate." The "undersigned" official of the O.M. was Gandharv Kumar Sandilya, Under Secretary to the Govt of India. The representations have been forwarded to the Department of Expenditure.

The subject of the O.M. was "Request for amendment to the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Eighth Central Pay Commission for inclusion of pension revision of past pensioners who retired before 01.01.2026 and pensioners' issues".

So the final decision of revising the Terms of Reference for the benefit of pensioners is now in the hands of DoE.

What the ToR says

The current ToR of the 8th CPC doesn't specifically mention anything about pensioners or family pension, or for employees who have retired before January 1, 2026. However, the ToR mandates the 8th CPC to review emoluments, including pay, allowances, and other facilities/benefits.

Last year, the AIDEF had accused the government 69 lakh central government pensioners and family pensioners out of the purview of the 8th CPC by avoiding specific mention of pension revision in the ToR.