Dating back to February, 1884, PLI (Postal Life Insurance) is one of the oldest life insurers in the country. Started as a welfare scheme to provide benefits to the employees of the Postal department, PLI has really come a long way. It now offers its policies to a large number of state and central government departments such Nationalised Banks, Universities, Officers and staff of the Defence services, Government Aided Educational Institutions and Para-military forces, amongst a host of others.

PLI is perhaps the only department that has spread its operations to several areas besides its regular mail distribution and collection services. With the advent of technology, it has added many facilities in order to make it easy for people to avail the Postal Life Insurance seamlessly and quickly.

Postal Life Insurance (PLI) Policy Status:

Many policy holders spend endless hours on the phone or standing in queues at one of the Post Offices in order to check their postal life insurance policy status and to make premium payments. Why? This is because a large fraction of policy holders are unaware of the fact that they can now check their postal life insurance policy status not only offline, but also online.

Earlier there was no online facility to check the PLI status. Now you can check your Postal Life Insurance policy status online. You can follow the steps below to track the status of your policy:

Login to your PLI Account:

If you have a policy, you can simply create an account on India post’s website. You can login to your account and request for postal Life Insurance policy status online.

PLI Status Enquire via email

You can send an email to pli.dte@gmail[dot]com to obtain the information and status of your PLI policy. You will get the latest updates about the policy.

Log on to the Official Website of India Post:

You can check your Postal Life Insurance Policy status online by logging on to the official website of Indian Post, i.e. www.indiapost.gov[dot]in. You need to click on ‘customer care’ on the top. On clicking on the tab, you will see a drop-down list and you need to pick complain registration option. From the complaint category, choose ‘postal insurance’ and fill the form with your query to provide the information on your latest status.

Now that you know how to check your postal life insurance policy status online, let’s get under the skin of PLI and understand it a little better.

What exactly is Postal Life Insurance?

Postal Life Insurance is a scheme where you are offered Life Insurance cover with higher returns on the premium. Under this scheme, you can assure a maximum sum of Rs. 50 lakhs. The government of India offers this plan to the employees of State and Central Governments, State and Central Public Sector Enterprises, Universities, Government Aided Educational Institutions, Local Bodies, Autonomous Bodies, Joint ventures with a minimum of 10% of PSU/Government stake etc. Postal Life Insurance also manages a group life insurance scheme for the ‘Gramin Dak Sevaks’, that is, Extra Departmental Employees of Department of Posts.

Key Features of Postal Life Insurance Policy:

You can avail the benefits mentioned below by investing in PLI:

Nomination Facility: The insured has the right to nominate his or her beneficiary along with this; he can make any changes to the nomination.

Policy Revival: A lapsed policy can be revived by a policy holder. The insured can revive the policy when it has lapsed under the following circumstances:

Policy lapses if the policyholder does not make payments of 6 successive premiums with the policy being effective for not more than 3 years.

Policy lapses if the insured makes non-payment of 12 successive premiums with the policy being in effect for more than three years.

Conversion of Policy: A policy holder can convert this policy to Endowment Assurance Policy from Whole Life Assurance policy. Endowment Assurance Policy can be transformed to a new Endowment Assurance plan according to the guidelines and regulations laid down by the policyholder.

Loan Facility: The policy holder can take a loan against this policy. The insured can pledge his policy as a security to the Heads of Circle/Region on behalf of India’s President, once the policy attains 3 years maturity in the case of Endowment Assurance policy and 4 years period of policy in case of a Whole Life Insurance policy. The policy holder is provided with assignment facility under this scheme.

Duplicate Policy Document: The policy holder is issued with a duplicate policy document in case of misplacement or loss of the original document. Also, if the insured’s original document is burned, torn or mutilated and require a duplicate copy of the document then he can get it issued.

Type of Postal Life Insurance Schemes:

Postal Life Insurance (PLI) is available in 6 different types for those looking to make the maximum bangs for their bucks by investing in it.

PLI Scheme	Type of Insurance	Age Eligibility (in years)	Conversion	Sum Assured (in Rs)	Loan Facility	Medical Test
Suraksha	Whole Life Insurance	Min - 19 Max - 55	Allowed	Min - 20,000 Max – 50 lakh	Yes	Mandatory
Santosh	Endowment Policy	Min - 19 Max - 55	Allowed	Min - 20,000 Max – 50 lakh	Yes	Mandatory
Suvidha	Convertible Whole Life Insurance	Min - 19 Max - 55	Allowed	Min - 20,000 Max -50 Lakhs	Yes	Mandatory
Sumangal	Anticipated Endowment Policy	NA	NA	Max- 50 Lakhs	NA	Mandatory
Yugal Suraksha	Joint Life Endowment Policy	Min - 19 Max - 55	Allowed	Min - 20,000 Max -1 Lakhs	Yes	Mandatory
Bal Jeevan Bima	Children Policy	Primary Policyholder: Max – 45 Children: Min – 5 Max – 20	Not Allowed	Max – 3 Lakhs	No	Not Mandatory

Now that you know the different types of life insurance policy offered by Postal Life Insurance , let’s check out the key benefits of investing your hard-earned money in PLI.

Benefits Available Under PLI Scheme:

• Income Tax rebate under Section 88 of the Income Tax Act of India, 1961 is available for the insured under the PLI scheme.
• The premium that is payable for the coverage and the sum assured is much lower than that of any other insurance policy’s payable.
• Additional facilities that the scheme offers to its policy holder are Loan, Assignment, Paid-up value and Surrender options, and Conversion.
• The policy holder can get policy transferred to any region/circle within the country, without paying any additional charges.
• The insured is issued to passbook to keep a check on the premium payments and in the case of transactions for loan etc.
• The policyholder can make payment of the premium on the monthly, half-yearly and annual basis. He can pay the premium on any working day, in the case of due payment.
• The scheme comes with a Nomination facility
• Having a centralised accounting facility, Postal Life Insurance Scheme comes with the easy and quick claims process.

If you’re still wondering why PLI is so popular? Let us also introduce you to the key features of this amazing scheme.

Key Features of PLI Scheme:

1. Postal Life Insurance offers its customers the dual benefits of endowment assurance and whole-life insurance.
2.  Postal Life Insurance schemes care also available for those temporary employees working with the Indian postal department.
3. Postal Life Insurance plans allow policy holders to extend the coverage to their spouses, even if they aren’t government employees.
4. Coverage provided under Postal Life Insurance continues even after an employee quits the government job.
5. Postal Life Insurance scheme provides comprehensive coverage to rural people, even if they are not employed by a governmental organization.

Over to You!

Now when you know how check your Postal Life Insurance policy status, and make PLI premium payments online, we would recommend you to consider investing in this policy if you are employees of Defence Services, State Governments, Central Government, Para Military Forces, Nationalized Banks and a host of other state owned departments. The different schemes available under PLI would help you ensure maximum savings and comprehensive financial protection for self and loved ones.

Source: Indian Post