The subsidy for over 52 years is one of the most beneficial aid of the State Public Employment Service (SEPE), since it is charged indefinitely to the retirement age and also quotes for the pension. However, the fact that they approve it does not guarantee that it is maintained over time if irregularities are detected. The Social Security regulations contemplate the return of unduly charged benefits and economic sanctions when fraud can be seen.
This is explained by Miriam Ruiz Acosta, a lawyer specialized in labor and social security law, where he explained in a video up to Tiktok a case in which the Labor Inspection opened an act of infringement to a worker who charged this subsidy.
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As the lawyer recounts, “it was a person who had been working in the hospitality sector as a discontinuous fixed for about 8 or 9 months.” Shortly before he turned 52, “he decides to voluntarily abandon his job due to health problems” and, as Ruiz Acosta recalls, “as a voluntary decline was not entitled to unemployment or subsidy benefit.”
Months later, “this person is called again from the same restaurant to cover a weekend when one of the teammates was rest.” After those two days of work, “it will be registered as a job seeker and asks for the unemployment subsidy for over 52 years that are approved because the end of that employment relationship had no longer been due to a voluntary decline, but for a termination of contract.”
The problem came when “the SEPE suspects because it says that it cannot be possible that this person has worked only and exclusively two days and in the same job he had abandoned previously” and gave transfer to the Labor Inspection. After citing employer and colleagues, and not finding payroll or registration, “what concludes the Labor Inspection is that this employment relationship was simulated.”
Return more than a year of subsidy
The consequence was that “this worker has to return the entire unemployment subsidy she has charged for almost a year and a half,” explains Ruiz Acosta. The lawyer recalls that, according to the regulations, “obviously here they give us a deadline for allegations and we will do them because this employment relationship was not simulated.” Even so, he warns that the SEPE and the Labor Inspection can open a file and demand the reimbursement, even if the help had been recognized at first.
In this sense, the General Social Security Law establishes in its article 55 that unduly perceived benefits must be returned, and article 297 typifies the fraudulent obtaining of unemployment benefits as a very serious infraction, which may lead to additional sanctions.
Ruiz Acosta also explains that “the company can be made solidarity with the return of the amounts that have been charged for unemployment benefit, in addition to the fine that can fall.”
“You have to take precautions”
The lawyer recommends being very careful with short -term contracts that may lead to the request for benefits: “It is essential to ensure that there is a schedule registration, that the payroll is paid by transfer and that is issued in writing, to avoid problems with the inspection.”
He also remembers that, although the SEPE initially approves the aid, a posterior file can always be opened if there is simulation or fraud.
In his words: “This shows that both the SEPE and Social Security control these cases a lot and that, if they suspect irregularities, they can force you to return the subsidy, regardless of the time that you have been charging.”