The European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, has welcomed the decision of the Commission not to recover a pension payment that was made in error after the death of a former employee. This followed a complaint by the son of the deceased. More than four years after the death of his father, the Commission had asked him to pay back 1 747 EUR which represented one month of unduly paid invalidity pension. After the Ombudsman intervened, the Commission agreed to waive the reimbursement request, due to the exceptional circumstances of the case.

The case

On 8 November 1998, a former Commission employee who had worked in the courier service died. More than four years later, his son received a letter from the Commission's pension service informing him that it had, in error, paid one month of invalidity pension to the deceased's bank account for December 1998. The Commission asked him to reimburse 1 747 EUR.

At the time of the request, the complainant was unemployed, doing voluntary work for an NGO. He explained to the Commission that he had not been aware of the pension payment. Although he initially agreed to reimburse the sum in instalments, he alleged that it would be unfair for the Commission to enforce the recovery order. In his complaint to the Ombudsman, he stated that he had acted in good faith and that he had no means to reimburse the amount. He asked that the Commission cancel the request for repayment.

In view of the exceptional circumstances and the long delay in dealing with this case, the Ombudsman asked the Commission to cancel or reduce its demand for reimbursement. He argued that the payment was the result of an error by the Commission and that it would be unfair and excessive to insist on repayment.

The Commission finally accepted the Ombudsman's recommendation and agreed to cancel its request.

To read the full decision, please go to:

 

 

 

For information about the case: Juliano Franco, Legal Advisor, tel. +33 388 17 2151