|
 |
| The Times, 11 March 2006 |
|
| THE Government tried to retrieve pensions overpayments from fewer than 100 people last year, it emerged yesterday, amid a row over whether ministers planned to claw back £ 130 million of mispaid pensions. |
|
|
|
| David Ruffley, the Shadow Minister for Welfare Reform, raised concerns that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) planned to force pensioners to return means-tested benefits paid as a result of the DWP's error. |
|
|
|
| Mr Ruffley said that overpayments had trebled since pension credits were introduced in October 2003. |
|
|
|
| However, Pensions Reform Minister Stephen Timms said pensioners would not be forced to pay back any overpaid credits. "When there's a mistake, a letter goes out," he said. "It makes it clear that social security law does not allow us to require repayment." |
|
|
|
| Pensions credits were designed to ensure that state benefits targeted the poorest pensioners. Forty-six per cent of pensioners are eligible for the £ 109-a-week payment. |
|
|
|
| The DWP said that the overpayments were made as a result of "official error" such as incorrect information being put into the department's computers or payments continuing after a pensioner died. |
|
|
|
| A spokeswoman said that the DWP attempted to retrieve money from fewer than 100 people last year, all of whom received "significant overpayments". "We're not in the business of taking money from pensioners," she said. |
|
|
|
| She said that the decision by Revenue & Customs to demand the return of overpaid tax credits was because of a "different departmental approach". Revenue & Customs has overpaid £ 1.9 billion in tax credits to poor and middle-income families. |
|
|
|
| Experts have raised concerns that the Government's emphasis on means-testing is deterring workers from saving. |
|
|
|
|
|
