The Army Pensions Acts provide for the grant of pensions and gratuities to former members of the Permanent Defence Force in respect of permanent disablement due to a wound or injury attributable to military service (whether at home or abroad) or due to disease attributable to or aggravated by overseas service with the United Nations.
Section 13(2) of the Army Pensions Act, 1923, as amended, provides that “Any compensation which may be received from or on behalf of the person alleged to be responsible for the act which caused the wounding … may be taken into consideration in fixing the amount of any pension, allowance or gratuity which might be awarded under this Act to or in respect of such person and if such compensation is received after the award of any such pension or allowance the Minister may review the award and, having regard to the amount of such compensation, either terminate or reduce the amount thereof.”
The underlying objective of section 13(2) is to prevent double compensation in respect of the same disablement. Compensation of the kind in question would usually result from a civil action for damages against the Department of Defence, but compensation received from any other source is not excluded.
The provisions do not apply to Disability Pension cases related solely to disablement due to disease attributable to or aggravated by overseas service with the United Nations. They apply only to wound pension cases involving wound or injury or where disease is secondary to wound or injury.
There are currently 1,011 Disability Pensions of all categories in payment, of which 275 in relation to injury/wound pensions have had a reduction under S.13 (2) applied.
There have been a number of key cases both at Supreme and High Court levels involving Section 13(2) and the procedures in place in relation to individual cases take account of these judgements. The Courts, in various judgements, have upheld the Minister’s statutory right to take into consideration that part of the damages which can properly be regarded as general damages or that part which can properly be regarded as referable to loss of earnings, as he considers proper.
The reduction of these Disability Pensions is not arbitrary; it is provided for under legislation and is done on foot of a bona fide decision by the Minister after careful consideration of the specific circumstances of the individual case. The person or his/her solicitor is advised of the statutory provisions and of the potential implications for his/her application. Representations are invited regarding, in particular, the person's circumstances, details of the compensation actually received, and whether there are any special or extenuating circumstances involved.
On receipt of representations, each case is submitted to the Minister for decision, together with the relevant facts of the case, including details of the representations made and an actuarial assessment (in pension only cases) of the compensation received. An actuarial assessment translates the compensation into an annuity value using various actuarial assumptions.
Full account is then taken of representations made and the annuity value of the compensation received before a final decision is made personally by the Minister. Once fixed, the value of any reduction decided by the Minister does not change over time, however, the Disability Pension itself increases over time in line with relevant pay increases.
Implementation of this statutory provision does not attempt to reverse the decision of the Courts and only comes into play when someone has received double compensation in respect of the same wound or injury, i.e. both compensation (from any source) and a Disability Pension or gratuity from my Department.
I am satisfied that ‘Section 13(2)’ is applied appropriately and there are no plans to discontinue or review the application of this statutory provision.
