How to Check and Claim Your EOBI Pension

If you worked in a registered factory, shop or company in Pakistan, your employer was supposed to be paying into EOBI for you. That builds an old age pension of at least Rs 11,500 a month, for life.

There is one rule that costs people more than any other, and almost nothing written about EOBI mentions it. EOBI will backdate your claim by six months and no further. If you reach retirement age and apply two years later, you do not get two years of arrears. You get six months.

We read this on EOBI's own website. Getting there took a workaround: the secure address fails, but the plain `http://www.eobi.gov.pk` address loads normally. Everything below comes from that page unless we say otherwise.

The pension is Rs 11,500, and it has been since January 2025

EOBI's own site states it plainly: minimum Rs 11,500 from January 2025 onwards, with the maximum set "as per formula".

Two things are being reported incorrectly elsewhere and worth correcting.

• Several sites still give the minimum as Rs 10,000. EOBI says Rs 11,500.
• Several sites date the Rs 11,500 minimum to 1 January 2026. EOBI says January 2025.

Where a third party and the institution itself disagree about the institution's own pension rate, we go with the institution. If you were told you were only entitled to Rs 10,000, that is worth raising.

On the maximum, EOBI prints no figure at all, only "as per formula". A figure of Rs 32,000 has been reported from a Senate committee briefing in February 2026. We are passing that on as reported, not as verified, because EOBI does not publish it.

Who qualifies, and what happens if you fall short

The headline number is fifteen years. But falling short of it does not mean you get nothing, and this is where people give up too early.

The old age grant is the overlooked one. EOBI's rules say a person who retires at the qualifying age with contributions payable for less than fifteen years, but not less than two, is entitled to a lump sum. Plenty of people with eight or ten years of registered work assume they are outside the scheme entirely. They are not.

Retirement age is not the same for everyone

• Men: 60 years.
• Women: 55 years.
• Mine workers: 55 years, provided they were in mining occupation for at least ten years immediately before retiring.

Who pays for it

You may never have seen a deduction, because most of it is not yours. EOBI states that a contribution equal to 5 per cent of minimum wages is paid by employers of industrial and commercial organisations. The employee share is 1 per cent, which appears in EOBI's own financial data document rather than on the homepage.

EOBI also states that it receives no financial assistance from the government for its operations. It runs on those contributions.

The practical consequence is that your record depends entirely on whether your employer registered you and paid. If they did not, there is no record to claim against, however many years you worked. That is worth checking now rather than at 60.

The other three benefits

1. Invalidity pension. For permanent disability. You need contributions for at least five years since entering insurable employment, and at least three years within the five years before the invalidity happened.
2. Survivor's pension. If an insured person dies while in insurable employment, having completed at least 36 months of it, the surviving spouse gets a pension for life.
3. Pension to children. If the surviving spouse also dies, the pension passes to minor children, boys until the age of 18, divided equally.
4. Pension to parents. If a deceased pensioner leaves no spouse and no children, the pension goes to the parents for five years.

The six month rule, again, because it matters

EOBI's wording is that old age pension cannot be allowed for more than six months retroactively.

Work through what that means. A man who turns 60 in January and applies the following January has lost six months of pension, around Rs 69,000 at the minimum rate. Someone who applies three years late has lost two and a half years, well over Rs 340,000. The money is not held in an account waiting for the paperwork. It is simply never paid.

So the correct time to apply is the month you become eligible. Tell your family too, because the same principle applies to survivors who do not know what the deceased was registered for.

How to check and claim

1. Check your record in the Insured Person or Beneficiary section of EOBI's site, using your 13 digit CNIC without dashes. Use the plain http address if the secure one fails.
2. Confirm your employer registered you. Missing years are usually missing contributions, and that is the dispute to raise while you can still find the employer.
3. Download the right form. EOBI publishes an Old-Age Pension Form and a Survivor Pension Form.
4. Apply the month you become eligible. Six months is the whole of your backdating.
5. Keep your employment evidence, including old salary slips, appointment letters and any EOBI card.

If you are self employed or were never registered by an employer, EOBI is not the route and you are outside the contributory system. The provincial and federal support schemes work differently, and we set out who qualifies for the largest of them in the guide to checking BISP eligibility and payment.

It is also worth knowing where your pension sits against the legal wage floor, which moved this year. Sindh raised its minimum wage, and we covered what that does to employer obligations in the piece on the Rs 43,000 minimum wage.

Questions readers are asking

How much is the EOBI pension in 2026?

The minimum is Rs 11,500 a month, which EOBI's own site says has applied from January 2025 onwards. The maximum is set by formula and EOBI does not publish a figure.

How many years do I need for an EOBI pension?

Fifteen years of insurable employment for the monthly old age pension. With at least two years but fewer than fifteen you get a one off old age grant instead.

What is the EOBI retirement age?

Sixty for men and fifty five for women. Mine workers can also claim at fifty five if they spent at least ten years in mining immediately before retiring.

How do I check my EOBI pension by CNIC?

Through the insured person section of EOBI's website using your 13 digit CNIC without dashes. If the https address does not load, try the plain http one, which is what worked for us.

Can I claim EOBI pension for past years I did not claim?

Only six months. EOBI states that old age pension cannot be allowed for more than six months retroactively, so a late claim permanently loses the rest.

What if my employer never registered me?

There will be no contribution record to claim against. EOBI pays from employer and employee contributions and receives no government funding for operations, so an unregistered worker has nothing in the system.