A government department treated social welfare pensioners unfairly for years because they were not in a position to go to court or to lobby politically, says the Ombudsman.
Mr Kevin Murphy makes the claim in a report which is severely critical of the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs. The report concerns the plight of people years late in claiming pensions - often because they do not understand the rules - and who, until recently, could only get a few months arrears.
One pensioner lost £36,000. Many of those affected have received substantial, though not complete, payments of arrears following pressure from the Ombudsman's office. The issue was raised continually by the Ombudsman's office from 1985 to 1997.
For years the Department had been telling pensioners they could get no more than six months of arrears if they claimed their pension late. Mr Murphy eventually found that Ministers had discretion all along to pay full arrears to people who were late in claiming contributory pensions. Applicants were not told about this, he discovered.
In his report, Mr Murphy describes the anger of people who felt they had been cheated after years of paying PRSI contributions. One woman, who did not claim her contributory pension until she finished working at 70 years of age, wrote: "When I did apply in December 1985, to my surprise and dismay I received only three months back payment.
"I thought this was a most harsh judgment as over 40 years - in times of extremely slim wage packets - I had paid my weekly contribution . . . I feel hard done by, as I am not seeking a hand-out - only requesting what is rightly my entitlement."
She lost £6,435, the report says.
One of the more extraordinary cases in the report is that of a widow whose husband died in 1965 when she had two small children but who did not know until 1983 that she had been entitled to a pension.
Throughout the intervening period, she told the Department, "my income was very small and things were very, very difficult for me". It took a further 12 years for the Department to pay all the arrears following representations from the Ombudsman's office, the report says.
In some cases, people continued to pay social insurance contributions on earnings though they would have been exempted from these had they been getting their pensions.
In changes introduced in 1997 and completed in 1998, the Department will now pay a proportion of all arrears due back to the start of when pensioners could have made their claims. This only applied originally to people seeking pensions from 1997 on.
The Minister, Mr Ahern, has now provided for partial arrears also to be paid to pensioners who claimed for the first time before 1997.
Since 1997, more than 700 pensioners have received arrears under these arrangements. "Work is under way in my Department to identify and pay other pensioners where such arrears payments may be due," Mr Ahern said.
Figures provided by the Department yesterday show that about £5 million was paid out by the Department in extra-statutory payments between 1990 and 1997. These are made on grounds of fairness to people who did not make claims within the times laid down in the regulations. The figure includes all social welfare payments and not just pensions.
They show that extra-statutory payments rose from £800,000 in 1990 to a high of £1.2 million in 1992. The payment in 1997 was £381,215.
The Ombudsman's web site - www.irlgov.ie/ombudsman/ - carries the full text of the report.