Danish Woman Loses Pension Over Excessive Facebook Bragging

There are situations where harmless social networking can get you into trouble. In Denmark, an insurance company stopped paying out a disability pension to a woman, who admitted taking part in demanding sports, despite having health issues. Her Facebook photos were used as a proof.

According to her Facebook page, the woman was fanatical about sport. When the insurance company Skandia checked her Facebook timeline, they arrived at the conclusion that she had recovered from her health issues, and therefore discontinued the disability pension she had received before, Danish trade newspaper Fagbladet reported. Luckily, the hapless sportswoman was still allowed to keep her labor pension.

The woman, who has long been suffering from rheumatism, a chronic colon inflammation and a number of blood clot episodes, took early retirement. However, the woman wrote that she frequented a gym and practiced boxing, winning some tournaments and club championships and sometimes having two matches a day. By her own admission, the woman chose to focus on ‘the bright side of life' in her posts and avoided talking about her days of pain and tears, Fagbladet reported.

The Skandia insurance company ruled that such a lifestyle did not match with her stated health issues. At the same time, the company admitted that it rarely obtained information from public websites such as Facebook. Nevertheless, such measures may occur when the company receives conflicting or misleading information.

"We are fully compliant with insurance industry guidelines and applicable laws. We only use methods that are reasonable in relation to the problem," Skandia's press chief Nicolai Nielsen told Fagbladet. "We only collect information that is publicly available, for example from open websites or public Facebook updates, all of which we have access to," Nielsen stated.

Initially, the company insisted on the woman's resigning from the insurance scheme and paying back the money she had previously received. However, since the labor pension is based on agreements between employers and trade unions, it cannot be canceled by an insurance company. Claims for reimbursement were also ruled out, since the woman received her money in good faith.