Pension claw-backs - No excuse for double means tests

AS the Government prepares to refund €1 billion illegally deducted from pensioners in State nursing homes, the coalition is embroiled in a fresh controversy over wrongly clawing back money which elderly people had squirrelled away for a rainy day and left to their families.

At the eye of the new storm is a blatant form of double means-testing by the Department of Social and Family Affairs, exposed in a test case involving €34,000 allegedly owed to the State by a deceased elderly farmer.

Hundreds of similar claims could be made against the Government following a ruling by the department’s own Central Appeals Office which found it had no right to claw back money saved by the 93-year-old man while drawing the full State pension for more than 26 years.