Facts
S., born in 1964, received a regular widower's pension from the Old Age and Survivors' Insurance (AHV) from May 2000 after his first wife passed away on April 29, 2000. In September 2011, the Compensation Fund of the Canton of Bern learned that S. had remarried on April 2, 2004. Consequently, the Fund decided on September 27, 2011 to retroactively revoke the widower's pension as of May 2004 and demanded the repayment of all unlawfully received pension benefits totaling CHF 103,434 from S. Following his objection, the Compensation Fund reduced the repayment amount to CHF 70,890, corresponding to the widower's pension wrongly paid out from October 2006.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court found that the claimant's entitlement to the previously received widower's pension expired with his remarriage on April 2, 2004, and that the benefits subsequently received unlawfully must generally be repaid. It had to be examined whether the administration's right to reclaim had already expired due to the one-year relative limitation period pursuant to Art. 25 para. 2 ATSG when the Compensation Fund issued its repayment decision.
The Federal Supreme Court stated that, according to Art. 25 para. 2 ATSG, the starting point of the limitation period is the time when the administration should have recognized, with the due diligence expected of it, that the requirements for a repayment exist. The knowledge of an administratively incompetent authority, such as the civil…