Retirees were left with total debts of more than €2.5m

ABOUT 1,000 pensioners were left with debts totalling more than €2.5m in 2001, when the Department of Agriculture and Food discovered that they had received double pension payments, from both the Early Retirement Scheme (ERS) for farmers and from the Department of Social Welfare.

Many Retirement Scheme participants were faced with large repayments, the average bill being €3,000.

Two years later there was still an outstanding debt of €2.4m.

In 1999 it had first come to the Department of Agriculture and Food’s attention that many were getting the two pensions - even though participants in the ERS were obliged to advise the Department when they became eligible for the National Pension, so that the amount could be deducted from the ERS pension.

Fine Gael Agriculture Spokesperson, Denis Naughten, says many of the ERS pensioners had assumed there was a system in place in the Department of Social and Family Affairs to inform the Department of Agriculture they were getting the old age pension.

But it was only after uncovering the huge amount of double payments that the Department moved to put preventative measures in place.

Firstly, for ERS participants approaching the age of 66, payment of their ERS pension was suspended until they applied for and notified the Department of their State Pension entitlements.

The Department also established a link with the Department of Social and Family Affairs, through which details of all new ERS applicants were forwarded, for confirmation of their State pension entitlements.

As a result, only 11 “social welfare type debts”, totalling €33,000, were on the books in 2004 for the new version of the ERS which commenced in 2000.

But outstanding debts from the previous ERS still hang over hundreds of vulnerable pensioners.