A woman will not have to return 15,430.20 euros to Social Security, after it was claimed for the dependent child benefit that her brother with a disability greater than 65% received. The Superior Court of Justice of Galicia has rejected the Social Security appeal, since the action to claim this undue payment had expired, as more than four years had passed since the recognition of the benefit, which was in 2006.
According to the ruling, this woman was approved in 2005 by Social Security for an orphan’s pension with an additional supplement “for dependent children of legal age and disabilities in the established legal amount” for her brother Claudio, who has a disability greater than 65%. Later in 2006, the woman again requested from Social Security the benefit for a dependent child over 18 years of age with a disability greater than 65%, which was recognized with economic effects since April of that year. Thus, it was for more than 15 years.
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After the death of this woman, her sister was the one who assumed legal guardianship. It was like this for almost a year, until in November 2023, Social Security began a review of the file and proceeded to claim 15,430.20 euros that, according to Social Security, had been “improperly received since June 1, 2019.” To understand it, since 2019 a part of the family support (per dependent child) had been paid improperly.
The sister was not satisfied, since she understood that said claim was time-barred after more than four years had passed, so after a failed administrative claim, she decided to go to court.
Debts expire after four years
At a first hearing, the Social Court 2 of Ourense ruled in favor of the woman, meaning that Social Security had no reason to claim these undue payments considering that it had been submitted after the deadline. The INSS decided to go to court again, this time to the Superior Court of Justice of Galicia, alleging an alleged error of fact and the incorrect application of the regulations on benefit review.
Despite this, The TSJ once again ruled in favor of the woman, understanding that more than four years had passed since the aid was recognized, which made it impossible to claim its return. The Chamber recalls that the law sets a time limit “in the service of legal certainty”, and that the INSS action was clearly out of time because the benefit was recognized in March 2006 and the review file did not begin until November 2023.
The court explains that “it is evident that more than four years had passed since the appellant was recognized with the benefit, the date from which the prescriptive time must be computed, until the managing entity agreed to initiate a review file.” Therefore, the INSS action “is considered time-barred,” which is why “the appeal must be dismissed and the lower court ruling confirmed.”
Ultimately, the Superior Court of Justice of Galicia determined that Social Security could not claim the 15,430 euros received as a benefit for a dependent child with a disability, since the right to review the administrative resolution had expired after more than 17 years without any action by the organization.