Facts
The applicant, born in 1949 and divorced, has been receiving a full disability pension since 1 September 1990. In January 1993, the assistance authority that has been financially supporting her for years requested the payment of supplementary benefits. By decisions of 4 June 1993, the compensation fund of the canton of Bern granted these benefits to the applicant with retroactive effect to 1 September 1990 and paid the amount of 27,124 francs directly to the assistance authority. The applicant appealed against these decisions, requesting that the supplementary benefits be paid directly to her. The cantonal court partially upheld the appeal, ordering the compensation fund to pay the applicant directly an amount of 532 francs corresponding to the supplementary benefits for the year 1990. The applicant filed an administrative law appeal against this decision.Considerations
According to Art. 22(4) of the Ordinance on Supplementary Benefits (OPC-AVS/AI), when an assistance authority has granted advances to an insured person pending a decision on their entitlement to supplementary benefits, the authority in question may be reimbursed directly at the time of payment of the retroactively granted supplementary benefits. The Federal Insurance Court has ruled that this provision aims to prevent the public body from having to pay support benefits twice for the same period, first as a direct payer, then as a funder of the supplementary benefits. Thus, the retroactive payments of disability pensions and supplementary benefits constitute replacement income that the insured person has not yet received between the time the right arose and the time it was recognized by decision. For these amounts to be directly reimbursed to the assistance authority, the advances it has granted must concern the same period.
The Federal Tribunal considers that the period in question must be viewed as a whole and not divided into annual or monthly…