The Court Showed No Mercy
Namely, a man born in 1949 faced a demand to return as much as 84,000 euros after it was discovered that he had been receiving two different pension benefits simultaneously for years.
TL;DR
- A 77-year-old German pensioner must repay €84,000 for receiving two pensions without declaring it.
- The pensioner received an occupational disability pension since 1967 and a senior citizen's pension for disabled individuals since 2009.
- He failed to declare the existing pension when applying for the second one.
- The pension insurance discovered the overpayment about ten years later and requested the money back.
- The court rejected the pensioner's defense of being misadvised or the case being statute-barred.
- The court found the applicant acted with gross negligence by not providing accurate information.
- Due to gross negligence, the refund period extends to ten years, making the claim valid.