If you have signed up for SEPE and have recently found work, it is possible that you continue to receive unemployment benefits as a result of a technical or administrative failure. We tell you how to act in these types of situations.
Although it is not common, sometimes it is possible that We receive a charge from the SEPE that we should not. It is possible that it is one more month of unemployment benefit that has not been stopped in time or that, directly, the total amount is higher than it should be due to some type of error in the calculation.
In all cases, the SEPE It is your right to claim it. and we, as citizens, have the duty to return it. If we do not do so, we may even have to face a financial penalty that would make the amount to be returned even more expensive. But what happens when the amount is high enough that we do not have the liquidity to pay it back in a single installment? Can it be returned in installments? We answer some of the most frequently asked questions that usually arise in these types of situations.
Yes, you can split a refund
The SEPE website has a section specifically designed to resolve doubts related to improper charges and refunds. In it, we find the following statement “when any situation occurs that entails the loss or interruption of the collection of an unemployment benefit or subsidyyou must notify the employment office” adding, furthermore, that if we have collected “an amount greater than that which corresponds to it or for a period of time that should not be collected, the SEPE will notify you, inform you of the reason for the improper collection” and the important total and how we should return it.
In case that we cannot cope with the return of the total amount, it is possible to request the deferral or installment of the debt. However, in this case the SEPE is clear about this “Its approval will entail the application of the corresponding late payment interest.”. Finally, if the refund is not finally made, compensation for the improper collection will be carried out with the benefit at the time in which we become beneficiaries of another unemployment benefit. That is, when we return to receive unemployment benefitwe will refund the amount owed.
Therefore, as can be seen, we will always have to return the amount that does not correspond to us. Although, since it is an error, the SEPE allows us to agree on the best way to be able to make the payment, whether it is postponing the return to another time when we are certain that we will have liquidity, as if what we want It is dividing the debt into smaller amounts through monthly payments.
Maximum time to make the return
Since the improper charge is reported, we have 30 days to proceed with your return. In the event that we exceed this period, we must pay 20% more on the total amount, as interest. We are only excluded from this sanction if we have initiated the procedure to request the deferral or installment of the debt.
In the case of presenting the fractionation request, in the document that we must fill out with all our information, we must also present our proposal to settle the amounts in monthly installments until the debt is paid off. We will never be able to exceed the maximum period, which is stipulated at five years.
