Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 1981
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Raising of questions. [1911 OAP, s. 6] |
166.—(1) An application may be made at any time to alter or revoke a provisional allowance of a claim for an old age pension, and the following questions may be raised at any time— | |
(a) whether at any time or during any period a person has been in receipt of old age pension when the statutory conditions were not fulfilled, or when he was disqualified for receiving the pension; and | ||
(b) whether a person has been at any time or during any period in receipt of old age pension at a certain rate when his means exceeded the amount which justified the payment of a pension at that rate, and, if so, at what rate the pension (if any) should have been paid, and | ||
(c) whether a person who is in receipt of old age pension at a certain rate is, having regard to his means, entitled to pension at a higher or a lower rate, and, if so, at what rate the pension (if any) should be paid. | ||
(2) Section 164 shall apply to any such question or application as it applies to the questions mentioned in that section. | ||
(3) Any such question may be raised notwithstanding that the deciding of the question involves a decision as to the correctness of a former decision of the local pension committee or the appeals officer, as the case may be, but, where by a later decision a former decision is reversed, a person who has received any sums on account of an old age pension in accordance with the former decision shall, not-withstanding anything in section 169 (3), in the absence of any fraud on his part, be entitled to retain any sum so received up to the date of the later decision which he would have been entitled to retain but for the reversal of the former decision. | ||
(4) Where a question is raised as to the disqualification of a person to receive old age pension and it is alleged that the disqualification has arisen since the person has been in receipt of the pension, and that the disqualification is continuing at the time the question is raised, or, if it has ceased, has ceased less than three weeks before that time, the payment of the pension shall be discontinued, and no sum shall be paid to the pensioner on account of the pension after the date on which the question is raised: provided that, if the question is decided in favour of the pensioner, he shall be entitled to receive all sums which would have been payable to him if the question had not been raised. | ||
(5) If the decision on any question involves the discontinuance of old age pension, or the reduction of the rate at which the pension is paid, or if, in a case where the payment of the pension has been discontinued on the raising of the question, the question is not decided in favour of the pensioner, the person in respect of whose pension the decision is given shall not be entitled to receive a pension or to receive a pension at a rate higher than that determined by the committee or the appeals officer, as the case may be, notwithstanding any change of circumstances, unless he makes a fresh claim for the purpose and the claim is allowed or, in a case where he alleges that he is entitled to receive a pension at a higher rate, raises a question for the purpose and the pension is allowed at a higher rate. |