Up to 13,000 retired civil servants and ministers checked for ‘serious' incorrect pension payments as one owes €280,000

Irish Independent

a day ago

Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers has revealed that the National Shared Services Office has begun a scoping exercise 'to establish the scale of the problem'.
He said there are three cohorts of individuals impacted by the errors – and the liabilities range from a few hundred euros, up to €280,000.
They include current and former ministers and office holders, retired senior civil servants and civil service retirees with work-sharing patterns.
Mr Chambers said the errors span different time periods and have been detected in various ways.
One issue relates to the incorrect application of pension deductions for most members of the current Government, ministers of state, some members of previous governments and recent office holders.
The amounts involved range from hundreds of euros to the low €30,000s in terms of monies to be recouped.
In addition, a number of ministers are due refunds ranging from hundreds of euros up to the low €20,000s. Some are unaffected.
Another issue relates to 30 cases involving the administration of Chargeable Excess Tax, a tax on pension funds, and Withholding Tax, which is deducted from retirement lump sums, in relation to senior grade civil service pensioners.
'The liabilities for this cohort range from a few hundred euros to €280,000,' said the minister.
Another issue relates to the miscalculation and under-payment of pensions for some work-sharing civil service retirees. These individuals were in receipt of allowances before they retired in the last 20 years or so.
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'The issues that have been brought to my attention by the NSSO are completely unacceptable,' said Mr Chambers.
'The NSSO has responsibility for the essential function of the provision of pay and pensions to public and civil servants and it has failed in this fundamental duty.
'I have instructed the CEO of the NSSO that the multiple errors must be corrected by the NSSO as a matter of urgency, particularly regarding the treatment of retirees who had been on a work-sharing pattern in the civil service.'
The NSSO provides human resources, payroll, pension and finance management services to public service bodies including government departments.
Mr Chambers said he is committed to fully and comprehensively addressing the matter to ensure all money owed to the State is fully recouped and money owed to individuals is refunded, and to restore trust in the NSSO.
He said a pool of 13,000 retirees will be checked although the number affected is likely to be much smaller.
'To be clear, this does not imply that all 13,000 will have anomalies, but all 13,000 will be checked,' he said.
Mr Chambers said issues arose due to administrative errors in the NSSO and are not the fault of any of the individuals impacted.
He said he updated cabinet on a number of 'serious and systemic' operational issues in the National Shared Services Office after they were brought to his attention recently.
'My department is in ongoing engagement with the NSSO to establish the full scale of the issues and their impact on payroll and pension matters,' he said.
He said the NSSO is today publishing an information note on its website with detail on the issues identified so far.
The minister said he will outline a series of actions he has already undertaken or will be undertaking shortly to address these issues.
'Certain initial issues within the NSSO were first brought to my attention in late March, and while the full facts and scale of the problems were still being established during this time further errors and issues were identified,' he said.
He said he received an update on June 4 before advising cabinet this morning.
Anyone with queries relating to work sharing pensions can contact the NSSO Customer Contact Centre via email [e-mail] or the phone line 0818 107 100.