Gunma Prefecture City makes mistake in calculating welfare benefits, underpaying people with disabilities

From NHK

September 9 2024

Tatebayashi City, Gunma Pref – Tatebayashi City announced that there was an error in the certification of the “disability surcharge” that is paid to people with disabilities who receive welfare benefits, and that there were cases where the city paid less than the amount, and apologized to the recipients.

An audit by Gunma Prefecture conducted in July this year pointed out the calculation error, and when the city checked, the error was discovered.

As a result, 18 households and 20 people were not given the surcharge, and 4 households and 4 people had the surcharge classification incorrectly, and in all cases, less than the amount they should have been paid was paid.

The city says that the cause was that the person in charge made a mistake in the basis for certifying the disability surcharge, and did not change the surcharge classification even when the grade of the disability certificate changed.

The city has apologized to those recipients of public assistance and related parties where errors were found to have been made in payments, and will make additional payments. It also plans to investigate past payments to see if there were any omissions.

A representative from Tatebayashi city’s social welfare department commented, “We deeply apologize for the enormous inconvenience and concern caused. We will work to prevent such incidents from happening again in the future.”