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Annual Report of the Ombudsman 2003

Chapter 3 - Department of Agriculture and Food - Dispute over Repayment Procedures

Department of Agriculture and Food

Dispute over Repayment Procedures

A participant in the Scheme of Early Retirement from Farming (ERS) complained that a computer error in the Department of Agriculture and Food caused an overpayment of his early retirement pension to be made to him and he was not happy about the way the Department sought the repayments.

The ERS provides that early retirement pension payments made to participants are reduced by the amount of national pension payments which they receive. In this case, the Department failed to take account of budgetary increases which were made to non-contributory pensions in calculating the ERS payments. On discovering its mistake the Department issued a standard letter which it used in cases where overpayments occurred. By this stage the complainant had been overpaid for a period of almost twelve months. The letter imposed a six month repayment schedule on the complainant and he was not consulted about the proposed schedule.

While I accept that mistakes can happen and, generally speaking, public bodies are entitled to recover overpayments I hold the view that where the fault lies with a public body it should adopt a flexible approach in recovering overpayments. This is particularly the case where there is no evidence that the person receiving the overpayment had contributed in any way towards the error.

Following contact with my Office the Department agreed that it would revise the terms of the standard letter it issues in such cases to allow the participant an opportunity to discuss the terms under which the repayments can be made. I considered that this was a positive step taken by the Department which will benefit others in a similar position in future.

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