In a shock discovery by the Tribunal de Cuentas (Accounts Tribunal), it would appear that not even death is cause enough for Social Security to stop pension payments. It has been reported that in the year 2014, Social Security erroneously made monthly payments to some 29.321 persons who had already been registered by the Civil Registry as deceased. This means that an approximate sum of 25,2 million euros was paid out each month to the accounts of people who should obviously not be receiving it. The situation was not resolved by 2015 as 27.860 continued to be registered as pensioners on Social Security’s database.
How has this major mistake not been detected sooner? The Tribunal de Cuentas describes the situation as “chaotic” in their report because even though this information should be readily available by means of daily digital cross information with the Ministry of Justice. Besides this daily update of public record, the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (National Statistics Institute) sends a monthly report and pensioners who reside outside the country are required to confirm they are still alive on an annual basis.
There is information pending input in the database and the methods used by Social Security to cross reference data received against the general database of registered pensioners is obviously deficient as there is no set protocol about how it should be handled, leading to this ridiculous situation. Each provincial office acts independently and carries out their own checks but with different results even though some do not rely on digital data and also manually contrast information against civil registries, Town Halls, cemeteries and even contact relatives.
As would be expected when explanations have been demanded of the Administration, these allegations have been universally denied and Fátima Báñez, Minister of Employment and Social Security has stated that every precaution is taken and information is verified by means of four independent methods, making it impossible for this situation to even occur but at the same time, she also said that any undue payments can be claimed back by Social Security, therefore removing the risk of losing precious public resources.
My concern here is, if these allegations are in fact true, why were these payments not automatically rejected by the banks? I would presume that upon death, any bank accounts in these deceased pensioners names would have been duly closed by relatives not long after. If all information is contrasted on a daily, monthly and annual basis, how has this major flaw in the system not been detected much sooner? Will Social Security ensure this embarrasing situation is resolved before the end of this year?
As we all know, Social Security is extremely lacking in resources which has led to many changes in legislation to compensate so this issue can only be classed as one of gross negligence on their part and one that will have serious consequences in the short-term.
Watch this space as I’m sure this will be plenty talked about over the next few months.