Platform and gig workers can contribute towards their retirement saving without a minimum or maximum limit under the NPS e-shramik model. Introduced by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority in October 2025, the model provides an avenue for financial security to the workers without regular employment and incomes, such as delivery partner.
Unlike the regular employees at the formal-sectors, the gig workers have no structured income and social-security in form of regular retirement benefits. NPS e-shramik model aims to bridge the gap between the two by providing an organized platform to the platform service partners.
The PFRDA does not fix a minimum amount to be contributed, allowing the platform aggregator and the platform service provider to decide the amount. the contribution can be made solely by the platform, by the work, or both of them.
“No minimum or maximum contribution thresholds shall be applicable, in line with the existing Corporate Model. To ensure effective contributions, the Platform Aggregator/Platform Service Partners are free to fix a minimum contribution for each instance of credit into the individual pension account, for e.g., Rs 99 per month per contribution,” PFRDA mentions in its circular.
The worker can build corpus till the retirement by making contributions as per his income at the given point of time. Moreover, a worker can shift/port the individual pension account from one platfrom aggregator to another and can change from the Platform Service Provider scheme launched by Pension
Funds to the Common Scheme. The only limitation is that if a worker is simultaneously employed with two or more platforms, his/her individual pension account can be linked to a single aggreagator at a time. Thus, the model provides flexibility and ease to the worker in terms of contributions, employment, and accounts.
The exit and withdrawal of the Platform Service Platforms shall follow the All Citizen Model, as specified under PFRDA (Exit and Withdrawals) Regulations, 2015. A non-government subscriber exiting at the normal exit point can take up to 80 percent of the accumulated welath as lump sum and the remaing 20 percent must be used to buy annuity, if the total amounts surpasses Rs 8 lakh. If the amount is Rs 8 lakh or less, then the entirety can be taken as lump sum. In case of premature exit, the worker can take 20 percent as lump sum whereas the remaing 80 percent is required to buy annuity, since the scheme aims for long-term retirement savings. The models provides a provision for partial withdrawal for specific purposes requiring the subscriber fulfills eligibility conditions.
The PFRDA provides an incentive of upto Rs 100 for each new NPS account to encourage NPS adoption among the gig worker and provide the support to the Points of Presence (PoPs) in educating and creating awareness among the Platform Service Partners and building the necessary mechanism for onboarding. PoP charge no fee from the workers during the onboarding stage.
With India’s widening gig-work environment, it becomes increasingly important to provide the workers a stable yet flexible avenue to build a corpus like any salaried employee. A system which accomodates the irregular incomes and changing platforms to build a savings net for the worker’s future would ultimately require the contribution of the aggregator and the service partner.
