​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Postal Life Insurance

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Postal Life Insurance​.


Postal Life Insurance (PLI) was introduced on 1st February 1884.It started as a welfare scheme for the benefit of postal employees and was later extended to the employees of the Telegraph Department in 1888. In 1894, PLI extended insurance cover to female employees of the erstwhile P & T Department at a time when no other insurance company covered female lives. It is the oldest life insurer in this country. Over the years, PLI has grown substantially from a few hundred policies in 1884 to more than 46 Lacs policies as on 31.03.2017. It now covers employees of Central and State Governments, Central and State Public Sector Undertakings, Universities, Government aided Educational Institutions, Nationalized Banks, Local bodies, autonomous bodies, joint ventures having a minimum of 10% Govt./PSU stake, credit cooperative societies etc. PLI also extends insurance cover to the officers and staff of the Defence services and Paramilitary forces.


  • Whole Life Assurance (Suraksha)
  • Convertible Whole Life Assurance (Suvidha)
  • Endowment Assurance (Santosh)
  • Joint Life Assurance (Yugal Suraksha)
  • Anticipated Endowment Assurance (Sumangal)
  • Children Policy (Bal Jeevan Bima)

Customer Guide

Welcome to the PLI family.  This guide has been designed for your comfort.  A Postal life insurance policy enters you into a long term relationship with the Department of Posts.  During this long period you will have number of interactions with PLI.  A life insurance contract has several features which need explanation.  While the Policy bond given to you covers the contractual issues, you need a guide, written in simple language, that highlights some important facts about your Policy. 

  1. Policy Bond and its safety:

    The policy bond is the most important document during the life of a policy.  This is a document which will be called for in connection with various servicing events including the settlement of claims.  The first thing you should do after receiving the bond is to keep the same in a safe place and please do not forget to inform your near and dear ones about where this bond has been kept.

  2. Policy Number:

    Please look at the Policy Bond again.  There is a 13 digit number called Policy number.  This is a unique number that identifies the policy. In any correspondence related to servicing of the policy you have to quote this number.  So we would advise you to note down this number in your diary.  While paying premium through cheque, Policy number must be quoted on the back of the cheque.

  3. Payment of premium:

    The premium payment is the most important and most frequent event in the life time of a Policy and you must not forget to pay premium in time.  Failure to pay premium in time results in lapsation of policy which means the life cover will not be available to you. * There are concessions on this under certain conditions.  However, generally, the life risk is not covered during lapsation period.  Delay in payment of premium invites late fee. The premium must be paid in advance on the first day of the each month. However, grace period is allowed upto the last working day of the month. Please note from the Policy Bond, date of commencement of the policy, due date and mode of payment of premium.  Mode of payment means the frequency i.e. yearly, half-yearly, quarterly, monthly etc.  Based on these information, you can draw a chart of due dates for premium payment in your diary.  For example, if the date of commencement is 20 June, 2008 and mode is Quarterly, the due dates will be 1st June, 1st September, 1st December, 1st March. Please note these dates and the premium amount against the Policy number in your diary. You are a responsible person and surely you will not forget to pay your premia in time. we shall be sending a premium notice.  Please do not wait for notice for payment of premium. It is your responsibility to remember to pay premium in time.

    1. Registering Mobile number & email id:

      Customer will have to visit nearest post office for getting his/her mobile number and email address updated in the system. For the purpose, he/she has to make request in writing

    2. Generating Customer ID:

      In order to allow Customers to view and carry out transactions relating to their Postal Life Insurance/Rural Postal Life Insurance policies on real time basis, generation of Customer ID is a pre-requisite on the ‘Customer Portal’ through  the link  https://pli.indiapost.gov.in/CustomerPortal/PSLogin.jsp  . However, before, generating the Customer ID on the Portal, Customer will have to ensure that his/her Mobile number and email address are updated in the system against the respective policy. Only on updation of mobile number and email address, customer will be able to register on the portal by clicking on ‘Generate Customer ID’ button at the bottom left on the customer portal page. On Clicking on ‘Generate Customer ID’ button, customer will be taken to the portal page, where customer has to fill some mandatory information such as Policy Number, Sum Assured, Insured First Name, email id etc. After all the mandatory information is filled up, customer will click on submit button, then customer ID will be sent to the registered email id of the customer with link for resetting the password.

  4.  For Payment of Premium through deduction from pay:

    Please check from time to time that your employer is regularly remitting the premium deducted from your salary to PLI.  Any lapse or delay in remittance will be against your interest, as this may result in loss of Insurance cover.  One should not miss the Insurance cover even for a brief period.  Please check your salary slip regularly to ensure that the PLI premium has been deducted. If your services are transferred, please find out from your new office, the location of the PLI office where your PLI Premium will be sent.  Please inform the old PLI office that henceforth your premium will be remitted to xxx office of PLI.  [ xxx is the new PLI office].  This is important. Your permanent address/email id / mobile no helps us to contact you, even when your services are frequently transferred.

  5. How and where to pay the premium:

    We all know that different individuals have different choices.  Some love to come to PLI/ nearest post office and some others would not like to stand in a queue.  Keeping this in mind, we have tried to provide facilities for all types of customers. If you are one of those who would feel comfortable  to pay across the counter, let us inform you that you can do so in any post office.

  6. Your address:

    Next important thing to remember is that your address and telephone no. is the most important information about you.  Our endeavour is to send the claim cheque on or before the due date of maturity.  Often, despite our best efforts we fail to send a claim cheque before the maturity date just because the policyholder has forgotten to register change of his address.  Would you please remember to inform the post office about the change of address whenever that happens?  Please check up whether your address has been correctly printed in the policy schedule.

  7.  Nomination:

    It is extremely important that your policy should have a nominee. At times unfortunate delay in settlement of death claim occurs just because the nomination was not made.  As a responsible person you will surely nominate someone, preferably a near and dear one from your family, if not already done.  Please check up whether your nominee’s name is appearing correctly in the policy schedule.  Nomination can be done/changed at any point of time.  However, if you assign your Policy [say, to a bank, to get loan], the nomination gets automatically cancelled.  On reassignment, ownership of the Policy comes back to you, but the old nomination does not automatically get revived.  You have to, in such cases, nominate afresh. The insurant is advised to nominate the person to whom the claim amount shall be payable in the event of his/her death. In the case of minor nominee, name and concern of the appointee (guardian) who may receive the said amount on behalf of the minor must be given. In the event of nominee pre-deceased insurant, change in nomination must be registered with the CPC through your post office.

  8. Lapsing of Policy:

    The policy shall be treated as lapsed in case you fail to pay the premium/premia that has/have become due. In case of policies of less than three years duration, if more than six premia are not paid, the policy lapses. In case of policies of more than three years duration, if more than twelve premia are not paid, the policy lapses.

  9. Reinstatement of Policy:

    A discontinued policy can be reinstated. Automatic reinstatement is permissible in following two conditions such as (i) policy has completed 3 years and 12 months premium has not been paid, and (ii) policy has not completed 3 years and 6 months premium has not been paid. Insurant may deposit all the arrears of premia till that date of such payment along with interest at the rates prescribed by Department of Posts. You should inform the Chief Postmaster General to this effect through the said Post Office along with certificate of continued good health in the prescribed proforma to be signed by you and a certificate from your employer certifying that you had not taken any leave on medical grounds during said period.

  10. Loan:

    Loan will be granted on the security of Policy if the Policy has been in force for at least 3 years, and is otherwise unencumbered and has acquired a minimum surrender value of ₹. 1000/- Subsequent loans are also permissible subject to fulfilling conditions prescribed.

  11. Enquiries:

    You can contact at toll free number 1800 180 5232/155232 for enquiry related to Postal life insurance/Rural Postal life insurance. 

  12. Grievances:

    We shall be  trying our best to keep you satisfied but if unfortunately at any point of time you are unhappy about our services do let us know.  The best place again is  the post office which services  the policy.  You can contact them through telephone or write  to them or even visit them.  However, you can also  use  the internet by visiting  http://ccc.cept.gov.in/complaintregistration.aspx  and by email  pli[dot]dte[at]gmail[dot]com where we have a facility to register your complaints.  Wherever you are, if the complaint is registered through internet, the same will reach the PLI office immediately.

  13. Contact:

    We shall be happy to note your telephone number and email id as they supplement your postal address, if you have no reservation about sharing the same with us.  We would request you to inform the same to the servicing post office so that they can take a note of it. This will help in serving you better.

  14. Survival Benefits:

    Please check your Policy schedule [1st page] to see whether periodic claim payments are due to you.  If so, please note down the due dates.  In case you have not received the payment by the due date, kindly get in touch with the Post Office.

Sl. No.My PLI checklistTick here
1I have kept the Policy bond in a safe place
2I have informed someone as to where the bond is kept
3I have checked the Policy schedule in the 1st page
4I have noted the policy number in my diary along with due dates and Premium amount
5I have noted the Post office Phone number in my diary
6I have noted details of PLI INFO Center
7I have understood that in my own interest I should keep PLI informed about my Change in address, phone number, email id.
8I have noted that I should pay premium even if I have not received the notice
9I have a nominee under this Policy


For more details login http://www.postallifeinsurance.gov.in/