JOZEF Rydlo, a member of parliament for one of the junior coalition parties, the Slovak National Party (SNS), misled the Swiss authorities, who paid him a monthly disability pension of about Sk30,000 per month for several years. As a result the Social Security Office in Bern has cancelled Rydlo's pension, the Pravda daily wrote on April 12. The SNS is overlooking its deputy's blunder.
The office stopped his pension because it found Rydlo had another income, his MP's salary and allowances, exceeding Sk100,000 per month. Rydlo became a member of parliament in July 2006. Before then he received a salary from a university library.
According to Swiss law, only people without an income are eligible to receive a disability pension. Rydlo can now challenge the verdict in court.
The MP, who lived in Switzerland for several years, was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1992 by a clinic in Lausanne. On the basis of this diagnosis, the Swiss Social Security Office decided to pay him the pension. After receiving information that he had another income, it halted payments and began its investigation. Rydlo's pension was cancelled in November 2007.
