The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia has proved the Public State Employment Service (SEPE) and forces an unemployed to return 5,141.01 euros after improperly charging the unemployment contributory benefit, better known as “unemployment”. The worker traveled abroad in 2021 to take care of his sick mother and remained out of Spain for more than six months, and since this absence did not communicate, for the SEPE a serious infraction was supposed, which leads to the return of the benefit.
According to the sentence, this worker began collecting unemployment in April 2021, with a recognized duration of 240 days, until November of that same year. Even so, just a month after having granted the benefit “the plaintiff was absent from Spain from 05/01/2021 to 11/11/2021”. That is, he spent more than six months out of Spain, without having communicated to SEPE or his departure or his return.
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Despite the obligation to inform, he continued charging the benefit normally, at least until February 2022 when the SEPE detected the irregularity and communicated the proposal for extinction and the obligation to return the amount charged improperly, which amounted to 5,141.01 euros.
When he received the notification, he alleged that his trip was motivated by the need to take care of his sick mother and that, due to the situation, he could not communicate it. According to the sentence, he intended that a new proven fact be added to collect that “in the town where he was could not communicate by telematic means to the circumstance.” Even so, the claim was rejected, so this man decided to go to court.
He did not notify his exit abroad
Both Sabadell’s social number 1 court and then the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia failed in favor of the SEPE, that is, this man had to return the money charging improperly. Both courts explained that any exit abroad that exceeds 15 days, warning that lack of communication can lead not only to the temporary suspension of the benefit, but also to its final extinction. For this reason, the sanction and the obligation to return 5,141.01 euros unduly received.
In the case of the TSJ, he also added that “involuntary or good faith becomes irrelevant” in order to avoid the sanction, since the norm does not demand intentionality or intentionality.
In this sense, if the worker had communicated his departure, the SEPE would have proceeded to the temporary suspension of the benefit. This means that the aid would have been paralyzed during his stay abroad and, once back, he could have resumed it without problems. Not only does it definitely lose the benefit, but it is also obliged to return the amounts charged improperly during those months.