Shock for pensioner: Court tips over a repayment claim of 15,000 euros!

Shock for pensioner: Court tips over a repayment claim of 15,000 euros!

A remarkable case currently employs the judiciary in Germany: A woman from the Pinneberg district is faced with the challenge of taking a recovery of 15,000 euros. The social assistance authority claims this sum after it has been found that the woman has been wrongly received for over four years due to an administrative error. The case has been running since 2010, when the woman, who rely on social assistance due to her disability, failed to provide a serious notification: she did not inform the authority about her marriage.

The responsible social welfare institution continued to make the payments despite the lack of documents and the legal obligation to report the marriage, since an error in the IT application was not remedied. It was only in 2016 that the authority noticed this serious mistake and then demanded the repayment. The Federal Court (BSG) has now decided that the recovery on the part of the authority is lay. It argued that those responsible had to take their own mistakes into account, which they hadn't done in this case.

cancellation of the reclaim

The court makes it clear that the authority responsible for the well -being of the pensioner has committed a discretion when the retail of social benefits that were paid for years due to an internal error. According to the decision of the Federal Social Court can therefore not simply request a general repayment if internal control mechanisms have failed and Recipient has wrongly received the funds. The responsibility of the authorities is also pointed out to recognize and correct mistakes before making demands.