Case Q-6674/15 Entity addressed: Civil Servants Social Security System (Caixa Geral de AposentaçõesCGA) Date: 2015.04.14 Subject: Administrative annulment of retirement pension. Effectiveness for the future of administrative annulment of acts constituting rights to obtain regular benefits, after the expiration of a period of one year. Application of the new Administrative Procedural Code, approved by Decree-Law No. 4/2015, of 7 January Status: The Ombudsman’s suggestion was accepted, the case was solved and established a future understanding The Ombudsman received a complaint from a citizen challenging the CGA’s request for the return of an amount as unduly paid, after the administrative annulment of the act that recognized him the right to early retirement. After an analysis of the situation, it was shown that the right to early retirement was recognized to the complainant on June 20, 2014, and it was subsequently subject to an administrative annulment, by order of October 7, 2015, that was based on the fact that there was a mistake in the counting of service time by the CGA. Invoking the application of article 171, No. 3 of Decree-Law No. 4/2015, CGA has demanded the return of the claimant’s amounts unduly received as pension (from the beginning of the CGA’s payment of the pension until October 31, 2015). On the other hand, CGA notified the employer to reinstate the claimant in active life, with the reconstitution of “the whole situation” as if the previous act had not been delivered. Considering that the CGA is making an incorrect application of the law, the Ombudsman requested a review of the situation in accordance with the law applicable to the specific case. In fact, according to the provisions of article 168, No. 4, paragraph b), of Decree-Law No. 4/2015, the annulment of administrative acts which are constitutive of rights, even if after a period of one year, is possible for a maximum period of five years, but it only may produce effects for the future, where the acts concern the obtaining of regular benefits. This means that, once the administrative annulment of the act has been ordered, the payment of the early retirement pension ceases, and no other effects can be attributed to this act and therefore, in this case, the claimant had been improperly demanded for the return of the amounts received. The suggestion was accepted and the debt issued was cancelled. • 128 |