The Superior Court of Justice of the Basque Country has not ruled in favor of a former manager who took the State Public Employment Service (SEPE) to court for disagreeing with the calculation of his unemployment benefit. The court has declared his appeal null and void without even going into the substance of the matter, upon verifying that the amount of money he claimed was insufficient to access this judicial instance.
Apparently, the worker was a manager for a comprehensive management company with an annual salary of 103,791.10 euros. His contract ended at the beginning of 2024 and, shortly after, the SEPE recognized his right to collect unemployment for two years (which according to the General Social Security Law is the maximum). The organization assigned him a daily regulatory base of 148.92 euros, applying the maximum contribution limits established by current legislation (that is, that for his salary would charge the maximum amount depending on whether or not you have dependent children), regardless of how high their actual salary was in the company.
Since he was not satisfied, the worker complained and decided to challenge the resolution. According to the ruling of this 2026, the company certificate showed that in the months of October, November and December 2023 the worker had contributed for the maximum base of 4,495.50 euros at a rate of 30 days each month. For its part, the SEPE took into account a slightly lower base in October, of 4,350.48 euros, and also recorded 31 days of contributions for the months of December and January.
Since they did not agree with him and after seeing his claim rejected by administrative means, he filed a lawsuit before the Social Court number 2 of San Sebastián. He did not give it to him either and ended up rejecting it, considering that the managing entity “had acted correctly.”
The plaintiff again filed a petition before the Superior Court of Justice of the Basque Country, but the magistrates could not continue with the process because it was a “matter of public order.”
This is so, given that article 191.2.g of the Law Regulating Social Jurisdiction (LRJS) establishes that to prevent higher courts from being saturated with minor claims. To be able to appeal in this type of conflict over Social Security benefits, the economic difference being discussed must exceed 3,000 euros. When doing the numbers, the Court concluded that the discrepancy between what the former director requested and what the SEPE granted him “does not reach, either in the amounts generated or in the claim, 3,000 euros.”
As a direct consequence of this lack of minimum amount, the magistrates strictly applied the law and declared “ex officio the nullity of the action” during the processing of the appeal. This decision leaves firm the first ruling issued in San Sebastián and closes the door to the worker’s aspirations to increase the amount of their benefit, imposing the reality of procedural limits regarding individual claims.