A regional social court in Lower Saxony and Bremen has ruled that job centres are entitled to reclaim erroneously paid heating allowances. The court in Celle announced the decision on Tuesday.
The case centered around a woman from the Lüneburg district who received monthly payments of €480 instead of a one-time allowance, resulting in an overpayment of €3,600.
The claimant argued that, as a layperson, she was unable to identify the error and was not obligated to scrutinize the official notices. The Lüneburg Social Court initially sided with her, suggesting that the job centre habitually approved benefits only on a provisional basis. However, the Regional Social Court disagreed, emphasizing that heating allowances, too, were subject to provisional approval.
The judges clarified that benefit recipients have a duty to read and understand the key details of official notices. The claimant, they asserted, ought to have recognized the substantial discrepancy in the repeated payments. The court determined there was no basis for a protective reliance on the erroneous approval.