Distress as farm spouses told to return state pension payments

MAJOR distress has been caused among some farm spouses who have been informed by the Department of Social and Family Affairs that their contributory state pension is being withdrawn and refunds of payments sought.

Fine Gael agriculture spokesperson Michael Creed TD has accused Social and Family Affairs Minister Mary Hanafin of engaging in a smash and grab raid on farm spouses.

He said these people had been awarded pensions retrospectively but are now being asked to refund what has been awarded to them by the department.

“This is despite the fact that in all cases the department granted the pension and in many cases demanded a PRSI contribution be paid retrospectively by the applicant,” he said.

Mr Creed accused Ms Hanafin of reneging on a commitment made to farming organisations, which allowed applicants to claim, despite having passed the age threshold of 66 years of age as described in the legislation.

In all these cases, the department first required applicants to prove that a farm partnership existed and also sought a payment from the applicant to reconcile their PRSI record. This figure often amounted to thousands of euro.

Calling on the minister to reverse the decision, Mr Creed said the legislation clearly empowers the minister to ignore the 66-year threshold and award the pension, as has been the case to date.

Ms Hanafin, replying to Olwyn Enright, TD, in the Dáil said there is no change in policy or budget in respect of commercial partnerships.

About 1,000 people applied under the scheme by showing they were in partnership with their spouses. Generally, it refers to farm spouses.

Of those 1,000 people, 579 cases have been decided on the basis of whether they qualify as a partnership. Some 508 of those were deemed to have a partnership in existence.

Of those, 268 have applied for a pension. The rest have not reached pension age yet. These are people who qualify for the partnership and have applied to see if they qualify for a pension. Some 46 did not qualify because of the social insurance element.

Mr Hanafin said some 87 individuals were told they qualified, were put into payment but then it was discovered they did not qualify.

Irish Farmers Association president John Bryan said it was outraged by the decision and was seeking an urgent meeting with the minister. It had been inundated with calls from very distressed and upset women.