A furious widower was sent a letter demanding he settle a measly €5.90 after his late wife's pension was mistakenly overpaid.
Peader Daly, who called into Liveline on RTÉ Radio 1, said he was "shocked and angry" to receive a letter from the Payroll Shared Services Centre asking him to return the minuscule overpayment.
Margaret ‘Peggy’ Daly, from Tuamgraney’, Co Clare, passed away in October. Her pension was €3.75 per fortnight for an hour a day cleaning work at the local Garda station.
The letter from the Payroll Shared Services Centre, which falls under the Department of Expenditure, requested that Mr Daly settle her estate.
It read: "My purpose of writing to you is that Margaret was in receipt of a pension from this office, in order to finalise her pension I would be grateful if you could forward the original death cert and it will be returned immediately after copying by registered post.
"As the pension was paid directly into Mrs Daly's bank account, overpayment has arisen.
"On November 2 €3.75 and on November 16 €3.76. In total €7.51 was lodged to the account.
"As Mrs Daly died before the date it was issued, the money was not due to be paid.
"As Mrs Daly's estate is owed a balance of €1.61, and this office is owed €7.51, there is an outstanding balance of €5.90."
Mr Daly told Liveline: "I was shocked and angry, I couldn't believe that someone would send out a letter for a repayment that small. I have no problem sending on the original death certificate .
"I didn't notify them about her death right away because it was the least of my troubles but she was getting that money every two weeks, €3.75.
"I'm not saying she should have been getting any more but to sent this out shortly after my wife has died is something. Did they expect me to sit down straight away after my wife had died to let them know? I'd forgotten about them."
The Payroll Shared Service Centre has since apologised for sending the letter and any upset caused to the Daly family.
In a statement it said: "The Payroll Shared Service Centre would firstly like to extend our sincerest sympathies to Mr Daly and his family on the death of his wife.
"We apologise for any hurt caused by the letter Mr Daly received. It was not our intention to cause any upset to him at this very difficult time.
"Unfortunately Mr Daly did not contact us directly on this matter as we would have liked to resolve this with him directly.
"The Payroll Shared Service Centre pays pension payments for over 60,000 public service pensions. We know these pensioners are our mums and dads and the families of people who contributed to public service life, the economy and we value their contribution enormously.
"Unfortunately and sadly, approximately 20 times a month on average the situation arises where a payment to a pensioner is made before the payroll centre has been notified of the death.
"The letter issued is standard practice to recover that payment which is taxpayer’s money. This practice is common across the public service, including civil service, An Garda Siochana, teachers, the HSE, the military and so on.
"At present, there is no minimum amount specified in the policy that should not be sought for repayment. This very issue was brought to our attention recently and we are seeking clarification on it.
"We will follow up with Mr Daly directly."
