The improper receipt of pensions after the death of the beneficiary is one of the situations that most exposes the weaknesses of control systems and the legal consequences for those who decide to hide a death. The case now known in Spain, relating to a widow’s pension, shows how a social benefit can continue to be paid for years and then end in a heavy sentence, with the return of the money, fines and other sanctions.
The Murcia Provincial Audience ordered a woman to return 104,056.44 euros for having continued to receive her mother’s widow’s pension for more than 12 years, who died in 2007.
According to the Spanish newspaper, the defendant did not report the death to either the Instituto Nacional de la Seguridad Social or the bank where the widow’s pension was paid, having used the amounts that continued to enter the bank account where she was authorized to move funds. The scheme only ended in 2019, when a brother reported his death.
It all started after the death of the mother, who had been receiving this pension since 1981. Despite her death, payments continued to be made to the same bank account, in Cajamar, where two of the beneficiary’s children were listed as authorized, including the convicted woman. Between October 2007 and October 2019, more than R$104 thousand were paid unduly.
What influenced the decision
When the case was finally detected, Spanish Social Security managed to recover 36,115.54 euros directly from the bank, relating to part of the undue payments. After that, she demanded from her daughter the return of the remaining R$67,940.90, relating to the period between October 2007 and November 2015. As there was no refund, she took legal action because she understood that it was not a simple administrative error at stake, but a deliberate concealment with the intention of profit.
The woman was eventually ordered to return the remaining 67,940.90 euros, in addition to paying a fine of 52,028.22 euros. The sentence also determined that she was prevented from obtaining aid, benefits or incentives from Social Security for four years.
The court also attributed subsidiary civil liability to Cajamar, for not having verified the survival of the pension holder over all these years. According to the same source, the judges understood that the lack of this control helped to prolong the undue payment for more than a decade. If the convicted person does not return the amounts owed, the bank may be called upon to respond.
If it draws attention due to the duration of the scheme
The impact of the case is not just in the total value. What stands out most is the duration of the scheme and the fact that the omission of death was enough for the benefit to continue to fall into the bank account monthly.
This process, according to Noticias Trabajo, became a clear example of how hiding a death can have very serious consequences, even when the money goes into an account that already existed and to which other people had access.
How it would be seen in Portugal
If a similar case were to happen in Portugal, the legal starting point would be more or less clear. Decree-Law No. 133/88 determines that the improper receipt of Social Security benefits gives rise to the obligation to refund the respective amount. The same diploma considers installments paid after the conditions that justified their granting have ceased to be undue and extends responsibility not only to those who received the money, but also to those who contributed to this undue receipt.
Portuguese law goes further when Social Security is only unaware of the change due to lack of information from interested parties. In these cases, the regime provides for the refund of undue amounts, and the services must stop payments, identify who received the money and contact that person to return the amounts. The refund can be demanded by direct payment or by offsetting with other installments, and the notice sets, as a rule, a period of 30 days to pay or request an installment payment.
There is also a criminal dimension that cannot be ignored. Article 106 of the General Regime of Tax Offenses classifies as fraud against Social Security the conduct of beneficiaries that aim to improperly receive, in whole or in part, benefits with the intention of obtaining an illegitimate financial advantage worth more than R$7,500. This article refers to the penalty provided for in paragraph 1 of article 103, which is imprisonment for up to three years or a fine of up to 360 days, without prejudice to aggravations in cases legally provided for.
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