Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 1981

Repayment of pension overpaid.

[1935 WOPS, s. 57]

192.—(1) If it is found at any time that a person has been in receipt of a pension during any period during which that person was not entitled thereto, or has been in receipt of a pension at a higher rate than that appropriate to the case, then that person or, in case that person is dead, that person's personal representative, shall be liable to pay to the Minister on demand any sums paid to that person in respect of the pension during such period or, as the case may be, a sum representing the difference between a pension at the rate actually paid and a pension at the rate appropriate to the case.

(2) Any sum payable by a person to the Minister under this section shall be a debt due by the person to the Minister and may be recovered by the Minister as a simple contract debt in a court of competent jurisdiction or by deduction from any payment or payments on account of a pension to which the person subsequently becomes entitled.

[1952, s. 61]

(3) Every sum paid to, or recovered by, the Minister under this section shall be paid into or disposed of for the benefit of the Exchequer in such manner as the Minister for Finance may direct.

(4) This section shall apply with the necessary modifications in the case of a person to whom a pension is paid under any of the provisions of this Chapter for or for the benefit of any person.

[1961 MP, s. 12]

(5) The power conferred on the Minister by this section to deduct from any payments on account of a pension to which a person becomes entitled any sums payable by the person to the Minister under this section may be exercised notwithstanding that proceedings have been instituted in a court for the recovery of the sums which the person is liable to repay to the Minister as aforesaid or that an order has been made by a court requiring the payment by the person of the sums which he is liable to pay to the Minister under this section, and any costs required by such order to be paid to the Minister shall be deemed, for the purposes of this section, to be sums payable by the person to the Minister under this section.