Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) 2025

What You'll Learn

• What the ₹2 lakh accident cover pays, what it does not, and who qualifies between ages 18 and 70
• How the ₹20 annual premium works with bank auto-debit and the June-to-May cover year
• The full claim process — documents, timelines and how payouts reach the nominee
• PMSBY vs PMJJBY at ₹20 versus ₹436, plus the latest official enrolment and claims statistics

PMSBY — the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana — is the world's cheapest government accident insurance product: ₹20 a year for ₹2 lakh of cover against accidental death and permanent disability. Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 9 May 2015 as part of the Jan Suraksha family of schemes, it now counts more than 58.09 crore enrolled members and has paid ₹3,667.52 crore for 1,84,662 claims as on 29 April 2026, according to the official Press Information Bureau release of 9 May 2026. This guide explains the cover exactly as the government defines it, who is eligible, how to enrol through a bank, post office or the Jan Suraksha portal, and how the claim process works in practice — every figure verified against official sources.

What Is PMSBY? The ₹20-a-Year Accident Scheme

PMSBY is a one-year personal accident insurance scheme renewable year to year, administered by public sector general insurance companies (PSGICs). It is open to any savings or post office account holder aged 18 to 70, with the premium of ₹20 per annum auto-debited from the linked account. The cover period runs from June to May each year, and enrolment requires the account holder's consent to the auto-debit arrangement. There is no medical examination, no paperwork beyond the bank application, and no age-related premium — the cost is ₹20 for every member, every year, regardless of age in the eligible band. The scheme's position within the Jan Suraksha family matters: PMSBY covers accidents, PMJJBY covers life, and the Atal Pension Yojana covers retirement, which is why financial planners routinely discuss the three together. The three schemes were launched together on 9 May 2015, and the official release of 9 May 2026 marks 11 years of the Jan Suraksha programme — the milestone document behind the enrolment and claims statistics used throughout this guide.

PMSBY 2026 Benefits: What the ₹2 Lakh Cover Pays

The benefit structure is fixed by the government and identical for every member. The core cover is ₹2 lakh, paid in full on accidental death or on total and irrecoverable loss of both eyes, or both hands or both feet, or sight of one eye combined with loss of a hand or foot. A partial permanent disability — defined as total and irrecoverable loss of sight of one eye, or of the use of one hand or one foot — qualifies for a reduced payout of ₹1 lakh. The table below is the official benefit grid.

Two limits matter. First, PMSBY is strictly an accident cover — death from illness or natural causes, hospitalisation, and medical treatment are not covered at all; that gap is what PMJJBY and Ayushman Bharat are designed to fill. Second, the cover applies only to accidents during the cover period, and the claim is validated against the documents described later in this guide. For most members the premium works out to less than ₹2 per month, which is the headline statistic the government has repeated since the scheme's launch.

PMSBY Eligibility 2026: Who Can Join and Who Cannot

Eligibility is deliberately simple. Any individual aged 18 to 70 with a savings bank account or a post office savings account can join, provided the account is linked to the scheme with auto-debit consent. The government's rules add three conditions worth noting. The member must have a single account relationship for the scheme — if you hold multiple accounts, you enrol through one account only. The premium is deducted once a year from that account on the auto-debit mandate. And the account should be maintained through the cover period, because claims are settled into the account on record. Aadhaar-linked accounts are preferred, and Pradhan Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) account holders are specifically targeted by the scheme — 19.30 crore of the enrolled members are PMJDY account holders as on 29 April 2026.

Who cannot join: minors below 18 cannot be members; persons above 70 cannot enter the scheme; and pensioners, salaried workers and self-employed earners are all eligible as long as they hold a qualifying account. There is no income ceiling, no occupation restriction and no medical screening. A worker on a construction site, a street vendor, a salaried professional and a pensioner all pay the same ₹20 and receive the same ₹2 lakh cover. Three myths fail against the official rules: PMSBY is not a poor-family-only scheme, because the rules impose no income limit; it is not employer-linked, because the account-based auto-debit structure makes it fully portable when you change jobs; and it is not automatically active on a bank account — the enrolment form and the auto-debit consent are mandatory, which is why some account holders discover they are not covered only when a claim arises.

How to Enrol in PMSBY: Bank, Post Office and Jan Suraksha Portal

Enrolment happens through the bank or post office where you hold the savings account, typically in five minutes. Visit your branch and submit the PMSBY enrolment form, which requires the account number, Aadhaar number and nominee details; the bank debits ₹20 and records the auto-debit consent for annual renewal. Many banks also offer the enrolment through net banking and mobile banking applications — the scheme is listed under insurance products in most banking apps. The official myScheme portal lists the scheme with the enrolment rules and eligibility check. In 2026, the government also runs the Jan Suraksha portal, which allows online enrolment against any qualifying account where the auto-debit mandate can be registered.

Because the cover year runs June to May, the premium deduction aligns with that cycle — members who joined mid-year are covered for the remainder of the cover year, and the auto-debit mandate ensures renewal at ₹20 every year without re-applying. There is no separate last date because enrolment is continuous; the practical deadline each year is simply keeping the auto-debit account funded. One caution from the official guidelines: never pay an intermediary — banks and post offices cannot charge any fee beyond the ₹20 premium, and the scheme is free to join online. The walkthrough for each channel:

• Branch application: carry your passbook or account details and Aadhaar; submit the PMSBY form with the nominee's name and relationship; the bank debits ₹20 and records the auto-debit mandate for renewal.
• Net banking and mobile apps: open the insurance or "Jan Suraksha" section in your banking app, select PMSBY, confirm the account for auto-debit and the nominee, and authorise the ₹20 debit — the enrolment confirmation appears on the statement.
• Post office: savings account holders can enrol at the counter with the savings account passbook and Aadhaar-linked details, following the same form and auto-debit consent process.
• Jan Suraksha portal: register with the Aadhaar-linked mobile number, choose the qualifying bank or post office account, and complete the consent flow online on jansuraksha.in.

PMSBY Claim Process: Documents, Timeline and Payout

Claims are handled by the public sector general insurance company administering the scheme, and the process starts with a claim form available from the bank, the insurer or the Jan Suraksha portal. For accidental death, the claimant — usually the nominee — submits the death certificate, and for unnatural deaths an FIR or panchnama along with the post-mortem report where required. For disability claims, the member submits a disability certificate issued by the district Civil Surgeon or an authorised medical board, supported by hospital and treatment records. The bank details of the account on record are used for the payout: the death claim is credited to the nominee's bank account, while the disability claim is credited to the insured member's own account.

The official guidelines advise filing the claim preferably within 30 days of the accident, and the official statistics — 1,84,662 claims paid as on 29 April 2026 — show the scheme's settlement track record. The document set depends on the claim type, as the table below summarises.

The payout ceilings are the cover amounts in the benefit table: ₹2 lakh on accidental death, ₹2 lakh on the severest disabilities, and ₹1 lakh on partial disability. If a nominee is a minor, the amount is paid to the guardian on the record. Keep the scheme certificate and policy documents safe — they are your reference for the claim process, and the insurer's helpline appears on the policy document. Three practical habits make the process smoother: tell the nominee that the cover exists and which account carries it, keep scanned copies of the scheme certificate and the Aadhaar-linked bank statement with the family papers, and keep the claim form downloaded from the official portal before it is needed — forms are free, and no agent or intermediary is required at any stage of a PMSBY claim. Two situations deserve advance thought. When a disability develops gradually, the certificate from the district Civil Surgeon or the authorised medical board is the deciding document, and the insurer's medical team evaluates it against the scheme's definition of total and irrecoverable loss, so the treatment history must accompany the claim. When the nominee lives in a different city, the payout is still transferred to the nominee's own bank account through the ordinary claim process, and the account details on the claim form determine the transfer. In every case, file the claim in the name shown on the enrolment record and keep the Aadhaar number ready, because the payout is credited only to an account that matches the member record.

PMSBY vs PMJJBY: Which Insurance Do You Need?

PMSBY and PMJJBY — the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana — are the two insurance legs of the Jan Suraksha family, and they are complementary, not competing. PMSBY pays only when an accident causes death or disability; PMJJBY pays ₹2 lakh on death from any cause, including illness and natural death, but excludes disability entirely. PMJJBY's premium was revised to ₹436 per annum, with pro-rata premiums of ₹342 for enrolment between September and November, ₹228 between December and February, and ₹114 between March and May, and it carries a waiting period of 30 days before cover begins. The comparison table below captures the differences.

The practical answer for most households is both: PMSBY at ₹20 covers the accident risk that strikes the working-age population hardest, and PMJJBY at ₹436 covers the family against death from any cause — a combined ₹456 a year for ₹4 lakh of combined cover. Both schemes run through the same banking and post office network, are administered by the public sector insurers, and use the same auto-debit consent model, so a household already holds one account relationship that can carry both mandates; the bank statement then shows the two debits — ₹436 for life cover and ₹20 for accident cover — once a year. For the detailed walkthrough of both schemes side by side, our PM Suraksha Bima and PM Jeevan Jyoti Bima 2026 guide compares the claim processes and pro-rata rules in full.

PMSBY in Numbers: 58.09 Crore Enrolled, ₹3,667.52 Crore Paid

The official statistics, released by the Press Information Bureau on 9 May 2026 to mark 11 years of the Jan Suraksha schemes, put PMSBY among the largest insurance programmes on earth. Cumulative enrolments crossed 58.09 crore as on 29 April 2026, and the scheme has paid out ₹3,667.52 crore against 1,84,662 claims. Of the enrolled members, 27.45 crore are women, and 19.30 crore are Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana account holders. The Finance Minister's statement accompanying the release noted that claims of nearly ₹3,660 crore have been settled for over 1.84 lakh families under the accident scheme alone. The full PIB release is the authoritative source for these numbers.

The Jan Suraksha family shows the same scale. PMJJBY has crossed 27.43 crore enrolments, paid ₹21,512.50 crore for 10,75,625 claims, and counts 12.72 crore women and 8.09 crore PMJDY account holders among its members as on 29 April 2026. The Atal Pension Yojana, open to individuals aged 18 to 40 at entry, crossed 9.04 crore enrolments by 30 April 2026 and now pays pensions between ₹1,000 and ₹5,000 per month after the age of 60, depending on the contribution tier chosen at enrolment. Our Atal Pension Yojana 2026 guide explains the contribution tables, and the Pension Schemes in India 2026 roundup compares it against every alternative.

Pairing PMSBY with Labour Cards, Ayushman and Pension Schemes

PMSBY works best as the accident layer of a complete safety net. For workers, the cover is a core benefit automatically linked to the e-Shram universal account number and to state labour cards — the Labour Card 2026 guide walks through how construction workers receive the ₹2 lakh accident cover through their card registration. For health cover, PMSBY does not pay a single rupee for medical treatment, which is exactly where the Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY 2026 guide fits — ₹5 lakh of family health cover for households on the SECC list, which overlaps heavily with PMSBY's core members. For retirement, the Atal Pension Yojana adds the third layer.

Tracking Your PMSBY Cover and Official Helplines

Coverage status is simple to verify. The Jan Suraksha portal (jansuraksha.in) and the myScheme portal both allow members to confirm their PMSBY enrolment against the bank account or Aadhaar number, and the bank statement shows the annual ₹20 auto-debit as the proof of renewal. The official myScheme helplines are 1800-180-1111 and 1800-110-001, operated during working hours. If the auto-debit fails in any year, the cover lapses — funding the account before the renewal month and checking the statement after the debit date is the entire maintenance routine. If a failed debit is discovered, enrolment is re-initiated the same way as a first-time application: visit the branch or post office, or repeat the online consent flow, and the cover resumes for the running June-to-May year. A repeated warning from official sources: PMSBY enrolment is never sold by agents or callers, and any call promising to "activate" your cover for a fee is a fraud — enrolment happens only through your bank, post office or the official portal.

The Bottom Line

PMSBY 2026 in one paragraph: ₹20 a year, auto-debited from any savings account, buys ₹2 lakh of cover against accidental death and permanent disability for anyone aged 18 to 70; the scheme counts 58.09 crore members and has paid ₹3,667.52 crore for 1,84,662 claims as on 29 April 2026; enrolment is continuous through banks, post offices and the Jan Suraksha portal; claims need the death or disability certificate with supporting documents, filed preferably within 30 days. The maintenance routine is one line: keep the auto-debit account funded and check the statement in the renewal month for the ₹20 debit, because a failed debit means a lapsed cover. It does not cover illness or natural death — pair it with PMJJBY at ₹436 for life cover and Ayushman Bharat for hospitalisation, and the three together build a complete low-cost protection floor for an Indian household.