Finance
April 7, 2015

Ensuring Fiscal Accountability

Work Continues to Ease Financial Burden on Pensioners After Overpayments

The Department of Finance is continuing to work with pensioners impacted after an internal audit of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador public pension payments identified errors that resulted in overpayments to 427 individuals. In cases where repayment to the public pension plans is required and financial hardship is determined, to the greatest extent possible, staff will work with individuals to address it.

“Our main objective remains reducing the financial burden on the pensioners impacted by these errors. We recognize that these individuals are not at fault, and again, I offer my sincere apology to pensioners and their families. It is not our intention to place hardship on pensioners and we have staff dedicated to working with individuals to lessen the impact. Nearly half of the individuals impacted owe less than $300. We will make every effort to work with individuals to address hardship.”
- The Honourable Ross Wiseman, Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board

Measures to ease the financial burden include:

• The maximum amount recovered from an individual’s semi-monthly pension paycheck will not be greater than 15 per cent of their revised semi-monthly pay; and
• The overpayment amounts will be recovered over a period twice the period during which the overpayment occurred, in some cases this means individuals could have 20 years to repay. The payment period could be extended even further depending on the 15 per cent limit applied to the semi-monthly pay.

Officials in the Human Resource Secretariat and the Department of Finance remain readily available to discuss details and walk pensioners through repayment solutions that will work best for their personal circumstances.

“It is important to remember that the money owed belongs to the province’s pensioners – not the Provincial Government. We are making every effort possible to balance the need to return the money to the pension plans affected and the members of those pension plans, while recognizing the financial hardship this may place on individuals. We have measures in place to ease the financial adjustment that may be necessary and I encourage individuals to contact our staff and discuss a plan that is best suited to individual circumstances.”
- Minister Wiseman

The overpayments occurred as a result of two instances: the indexing of pensions and during the required integration of provincial pensions with the Canada Pension Plan when individuals turn 65.

QUICK FACTS

• The Human Resource Secretariat is continuing to work with pensioners impacted after an internal audit of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador public pension payments identified errors that resulted in overpayments to 427 individuals.
• The overpayments occurred in two instances: through the indexing of pensions, and during the required integration of provincial pensions with the Canada Pension Plan when individuals turn 65.
• Of the 427 individuals impacted, 204 people have an overpayment of less than $300 and approximately 40 have an overpayment of more than $5,000.
• The maximum amount recovered from an individual’s semi-monthly pension paycheck will not be greater than 15 per cent of their revised semi-monthly pay. The overpayment amounts will also be recovered over a period twice the period during which the overpayment was occurring, in some cases this means individuals have 20 years to repay.

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  Media contact:

  Jennifer Tulk Director of Communications Department of Finance 709-729-6830, 728-4104 jennifertulk@gov.nl.ca

  2015 04 07                              3:25 p.m.