THE FAMILY of a woman who was found dead more than two years after she disappeared from a Bray nursing home is being pursued by the Department of Social Protection for €80,000 amid claims she received too much in pension payments.
Maura Reynolds (78) disappeared from the Tara Care Centre on Putland Road, Bray, Co Wicklow, on the night of Christmas Day 2005.
Despite extensive searches her remains were not discovered until February 19th, 2008, in dense undergrowth at Bray Head. She had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and cancer.
The owners of the nursing home were subsequently fined €2,000 at Bray District Court after admitting failing to ensure suitable and sufficient care.
It has now emerged that the Department of Social Welfare – since renamed the Department of Social Protection – wrote to the Reynolds family last year claiming their late mother had failed to disclose her full means when applying for a non-contributory pension in 1993.
It sought to recoup more than €88,000 from her estate, saying she had not declared she had about €7,000 worth of CRH shares and an account in Ulster Bank in Co Tyrone.
Her son Paul Reynolds said yesterday the Ulster Bank account was not hers to declare as it contained money left in trust for her siblings by her brother when he died in America in 1983.
He also said his mother declared she had shares in AIB and also that she had a small income from part-time work, so she had no reason to conceal the CRH shares. He believes the department just didn’t note this in their records.
He said the department was treating his mother’s home as income rather than an asset. He said the family rented out her home to pay for her private nursing home fees, and therefore this should not be considered as income she should have declared for pension purposes.
Furthermore, he contends she had Alzheimer’s and was in no position in her final years to make such a declaration.
Mr Reynolds said he was “totally devastated” that the good name of his mother could be destroyed by this claim when his mother “at all times acted in good faith and within the law”.
Mr Reynolds is appealing the demand by the department for any money. He had decided to highlight what was happening after learning that Minister of State for older people Áine Brady had presented an award for excellence earlier this month to the nursing home from which his mother had disappeared, while another Government department was trying to “paw” his mother’s remains to see if there was anything to be got out of her.
He believes the award should not have been presented to the Tara Care Centre so soon after what happened to his mother. The owners of the home did not want to comment yesterday.
Ms Brady said she was sorry if the presentation of the award added any further to the grief of the Reynolds family.
She said the department had learned from events like that of the Reynolds family and had brought in new standards.
She added: “We must also, however, encourage the nursing home sector itself to learn from incidents in the past . . . It was in this context that I presented this award to the Tara Care Centre.”
A Department of Social Protection spokeswoman said it did not comment on individual cases.