A woman with a disability will not have to return the 22,889.64 euros of her non-contributory pension that the Cantabrian Institute of Social Services (ICASS) claimed from her. This has been confirmed by the Superior Court of Justice of Cantabria, which has annulled the administrative resolution that extinguished the aid and the claim for undue charges. The court agrees with the beneficiary by concluding that the registration certificate is not definitive evidence to determine the members of the family unit.
The Administration maintained that the income limits had been exceeded because the income of the plaintiff’s brother had to be computed, but the court has considered it proven that he did not actually live in the family home.
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Antonia, 65 years old, retired: “Since I was 14 I have not stopped working and at 43 I had my first vacation. They did not have insurance for me and now I only collect 800 euros in pension”
According to the sentence, Alicia received the non-contributory disability pension since 2011. In 2023, ICASS began a review procedure and, based on a registration certificate and a declaration completed by the father, determined that the cohabitation unit was made up of 4 people (the beneficiary, her parents and her brother, Aníbal).
Thus, by adding the income of the four members of the cohabitation unit, the ICASS concluded that exceeded the legal income limit(they computed 46,298.47 euros compared to the limit of 42,532 euros for 2019). For this reason, he proceeded to terminate the pension with retroactive effects to 2019 and to claim the return of 22,889.64 euros in undue payments.
Not being satisfied, the woman went to court, where the Social Court number two of Santander upheld her claim (that is, agreed with her) and annulled the ICASS resolution. The Administration then decided to appeal to the Superior Court of Justice, which also rejected it, once again agreeing with the pensioner.
The registry does not prove a real coexistence
The Superior Court of Justice of Cantabria rejected the explanations of ICASS, who insisted that a registration certificate was valid in addition to the declaration presented by the father in which he stated the four members of the cohabitation unit.
Regarding these two points, the Court explains, on the one hand, the pensioner’s brother was not part of the cohabitation unit, since, as stated in the ruling, “he has been living with his girlfriend for years, in a different address” and that, furthermore, “he does not contribute any amount financially to the financial support of his parents and sister.”
On the other hand, regarding the declaration filled out by the father, begin that the father filled it out like this “following the instructions they gave him, in which they indicated that he should record all the people who were registered.”
Material reality prevails over the administrative record
In this ruling, the key to take into account is that, to determine the right to a non-contributory pension, real and economic coexistence prevails over registration in the municipal registry. The court notes that “the mere information of a municipal registration cannot condition the configuration of the cohabitation unit.”
Therefore, since the brother could not be included in the cohabitation unit, the income of the family (made up of 3 people: Alicia and her parents) did not exceed the legal limit. Thus and for everything explained, the TSJ annuls the sentence and the woman will once again collect the non-contributory disability pension and will not have to return the undue payments.