Pensions — a damning indictment

THE excellent report by Conor Ryan (Irish Examiner, June 26) about the Department of Social and Family Affairs clawing back assets saved by elderly pensioners from their non-contributory pensions is further evidence of the non-caring attitude of Minister Seamus Brennan and this Government towards the welfare of the elderly.

The report is the most damning indictment of a department that is following pensioners to the grave to get at their savings accrued from means-tested pension payments from the same department. This practice is a national scandal.

The minister is reported as saying

“… there remains a statutory onus on me to ensure that such pensions are only paid in cases that meet strict compliance with qualifying rules and conditions. I am, therefore, satisfied that my department’s policy of recovering over-payments of pensions, including those from the estates of deceased non-contributory pensioners, operates in a fair and reasonable manner”.

But the Social Welfare Appeals Office did not find that “fair and reasonable manner” on several counts in the case study published in the Irish Examiner, and which appears as Case No 8 on the website of the appeals office.

Of course the minister is correct that fraud involving taxpayers’ money must be wiped out. He is legally obliged to do that.

Indeed, his department reportedly does a good job of detecting fraudulent claims. But elderly pensioners saving some of their means-tested pension for the rainy day is not fraud. It is the very practice that the Government — particularly Minister Brennan — has been preaching for years,

Didn’t they introduce the SSIA scheme at great cost to the State to achieve such saving by citizens? But if pensioners save some of their pension, they will be penalised by the minister and his officials. However, the minister’s statement, as quoted in the report, deals with fraud being perpetuated by dishonest citizens. It does not deal with assets accrued by pensioners from their means-tested pensions.

On June 20, in response to a Dáil question, he said: “If all the payments come from means-tested payments, that should not lead to a clawback in most cases”.

Apparently, he was then speaking without the usual briefing notes prepared by civil servants who are administering the clawback policy.

But when the Irish Examiner asks if he stands by that statement, we see the usual bluff and filibuster that avoids the specific question and answers a different one. This is the sort of arrogance that seems to find a ready home in Mr Brennan and his officials.

It is the type of bluff that civil servants obviously used when they appeared before the Oireachtas Joint Committee, fudging the facts as to the extent of their clawback policy that has now been exposed.

What is the punishment for misleading the Oireachtas? What will the Oireachtas now do about it being misled by civil servants from Mr Brennan’s department?

This maladministration is almost on a par with the scandal of the nursing home payments.

It warrants an independent inquiry — not a whitewash by civil servants. Undoubtedly, Mr Brennan will not institute this.

It is a challenge for the Oireachtas to exercise its scrutinising authority over the behaviour of civil servants.

Will it meet that challenge?

MT Moran

Waterfall

Cork