Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

Over the last six years the Department has reviewed 9,474 such cases. I am referring to the assets of deceaseds' estates and the number of means-tested pension cases for which the Department has assessed overpayments. The number found to have overpayments was 2,326. As I said on Committee Stage, that recovered €30.9 million. It works out at around €5 million a year, on average, with about 350 to 400 people affected per annum. An interesting point arises, which only came to my attention recently. In determining whether a deceased person was overpaid, funeral, legal expenses and capital, that is, savings and investment to the value of €10,000, are disregarded in the first instance. In addition, the standard capital allowances, as previously outlined, are applied. This means there is a special disregard of €10,000 for estates. I had not realised that. This should help and perhaps, in the future, that might be a way of tackling matters.

Deputy Stanton made the point about taking a different view as regards clawbacks, in cases where the only income is a non-contributory pension. Proof is difficult to establish in such cases and it could open up further issues for us, which I will not outline again. Enormous increases in disregards for the elderly have been introduced in recent years, particularly in the recent budget, for example the €20 change and the fact that a pensioned couple can have €70,000 and still get a maximum rate. That makes it less likely that they will have these overpayments. Increasingly we are trying to ensure social welfare means-testing arrangements do not act as a disincentive to claimants who want to become savers. We do not want to penalise regular savers in any way. At the same time we must ensure the system is fair. Obviously this will be kept under review. Keeping an eye on the €10,000 might be an angle that we could pursue.

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