Finance
December 17, 2015
Fulfilling Commitment to Pensioners
Provincial Government Cancels Process to Collect Pension Overpayments
The Provincial Government is fulfilling its commitment to reverse the request for pensioners to pay back pension overpayments they received and cease any and all ongoing collection efforts.
“Through no fault of their own, over 400 pensioners were impacted through this recovery process. We made a commitment to address this issue and that is exactly what we did. Right now we are operationalizing the process to repay the money collected to date. A review of business processes and information systems has already taken place and further audit reports and checklists have been developed to avoid the possibility of these errors occurring in the future. It was a priority for this government to reverse this hardship and we are pleased we can finally put this to rest for the pensioners impacted.”
- The Honourable Cathy Bennett, Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board and Minister Responsible for the Human Resource Secretariat
Affected pensioners will be contacted to advise them of the decision to stop the recoveries and advised of the following timeline:
- As of the December 31, 2015, pay period, the recoveries will no longer be deducted from the pension cheques of affected pensioners.
- As of January 15, 2016, refunds will be issued to those who have repaid a portion or full amount of their respective pension overpayments.
Pensioners should also note that the adjustment to their bi-monthly payment, made in April 2015 to correct the original error, will remain in effect. This includes the adjustments for Canada Pension Plan bridging and indexing.
QUICK FACTS
- The Provincial Government is fulfilling its commitment to reverse the request for pensioners to pay back pension overpayments they received and cease any and all ongoing collection efforts.
- As of the December 31, 2015, pay period, the recoveries will no longer be deducted from the pension cheques of affected pensioners. As of January 15, 2016, refunds will be issued to those who have repaid a portion or full amount of their respective pension overpayments.
- Pensioners should also note that the adjustment to their bi-monthly payment, made in April 2015 to correct the original error, will remain in effect.
- An internal audit of Government of Newfoundland and Labrador public pension payments identified errors and resulted in overpayments to 427 individuals. A total of $934,979 was paid out in error.
- 30 -
Media contact:
Jennifer Tulk
Director of Communications
Department of Finance and
Human Resource Secretariat
709-729-6830, 728-4104
jennifertulk@gov.nl.ca
2015 12 17 11:10 a.m.