Social welfare legislation places an obligation on people applying for a means-tested payment to disclose their full means at time of application and to notify my Department of any subsequent changes. The requirement to submit a schedule of assets in the case of deceased old age non-contributory pensioners is to ensure that the correct rate of pension was payable for the duration of the person's entitlement. There is provision in legislation for the recovery of any overpayments from the assets of the deceased's estate. The number of means-tested pension cases where my Department assessed overpayments since 2000 is as follows.
Year
|
Number of Cases
|
2000
|
508
|
2001
|
442
|
2002
|
406
|
2003
|
388
|
2004 (Up to Sept)
|
247
|