Vol. 526 No. 6
212 Mr. Aylward asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development if he will sympathetically review the case of a person (details supplied) in County Kilkenny where an overpayment is being recovered under the early retirement scheme and where the person was genuinely not aware that she should have notified his Department of her social welfare payments as she felt she was entitled to both pensions. [27702/00]
The person named entered the scheme of early retirement from farming in joint management with her husband. The regulation under which the scheme was introduced requires that in such cases the pension payable under the scheme must be reduced by the amount of any national retirement pension which becomes payable. Participants in the scheme, or their partners in joint management arrangements such as this, are required to notify my Department when they become entitled to a national retirement pension so as to ensure that the national pension can be offset promptly against the early retirement pension, thus preventing overpayments.
The person named qualified for a national retirement pension from 29 May 1998 but she did not inform my Department, which became aware of it only in September 2000. By that stage a substantial overpayment had arisen. My Department, to comply with its obligations in respect of EU funds, has no option but to recover the overpayment in full. Withholding the balance of her early retirement pension would not be enough to offset the whole overpayment, so there is a balance which must be recovered directly from the person named. My Department wrote to her on 7 November 2000 setting out the position and outlining options for repayment of the amount overpaid. My Department will consider sympathetically any proposals she herself may wish to make which will in due course result in full repayment.
