The Supreme Court of Iceland
A judgment on the legal basis of the reduction of the special supplement for maintenance pension
6th April 2022
Today, the Supreme Court ruled in a case against the Social Insurance Administration, where it concluded that there was a lack of legal aid for the reduction of the special pension supplement resulting from a regulation, which implied that the amount of the supplement should be calculated according to the proportion of residence of pensioners in Iceland.
The Social Assistance Act provides that a pensioner may be paid a special supplement to a pension if it is shown that he cannot support himself without it and lays down a limit on the amount of income to be met. The Supreme Court considered that by binding the amount of the supplement to residence in Iceland the amount could be reduced to the level of the minimum amount that was met in the Social Assistance Act. The Supreme Court considered that the stipulation on residence in Iceland was not in accordance with the purpose of the Social Assistance Act that pensioners lived at a certain minimum level of support. The Supreme Court therefore confirmed the judgment of the National Court and the Social Insurance Administration was sentenced to pay the individual’s estate benefits amounting to a reduction in the individual’s supplement between 2011 and 2015.
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