Unwanted News from SEPE: What to Do If You Receive a Letter
If you are unemployed and entitled to unemployment benefits, you may receive a letter from the tax office that you do not want to see. It is a notice of the initiation of a sanctioning procedure for failing to comply with a series of obligations, which, as a penalty, carries with it a precautionary suspension of the payment of the mentioned subsidy, according to the sanction proposal.
When you receive this letter, you have two options: either accept that you have committed an infringement and accept the penalty, or, on the contrary, submit a written statement of objections to the employment office, for which a period of 15 business days is established from the day following the notification of the sanction communication.
The objections may be accompanied by the documentation that is considered appropriate to support the objections. The State Employment Public Service (SEPE) will issue a resolution estimating or not estimating these objections, submitted on time. If you do not agree with the resolution, you can submit a prior claim within the month following the decision of the SEPE.
Furthermore, if you are not satisfied with the resolution of the prior claim, the interested party may file a lawsuit with the Social Court. In case you agree from the beginning with the infringement and the proposed penalty, you can let the 15 business days mentioned above pass without submitting objections and wait for the procedure to end by administrative resolution.
The arrival of the sanctioning letter from the tax office may be motivated by having failed to comply with any of these obligations to which people receiving unemployment benefits are subject:
– Contributing the corresponding contribution to unemployment contingency.
– Providing the documentation and information established for the recognition, suspension, extinction, or resumption of the right to benefits. Additionally, communicating to the regional public employment services and the State Public Employment Service, the address for receiving notifications, and, if there is a change of address, communicating this change at the time it occurs.
– Participating in employment programs or in actions for professional promotion, training, or retraining, established by the public employment services or job placement agencies. Also, accepting the appropriate placement offered by the public employment services or such agencies.
– Renewing the job demand in the manner and dates indicated in the demand renewal document. Also, appearing, if previously summoned, before the State Public Employment Service, the regional public employment services, or job placement agencies.
– Requesting the suspension of unemployment benefits due to situations that lead to their suspension or extinction, or because the requirements for receiving them are no longer met, at the time these situations occur.
– Repaying any amounts incorrectly paid by the State Public Employment Service.
– Returning, within five days, to the public employment services, or, where applicable, to job placement agencies, the proof of having attended the specified location and date to cover the job offer they have been given.
– Registering as job seekers, maintaining registration, and meeting the requirements of the activity agreement, as established in the Employment Law.
– Actively seeking employment and participating in actions to increase job opportunities as indicated by the competent public employment services, within an insertion itinerary.
Beneficiaries of benefits will justify to the State Public Employment Service and the regional public employment services, when requested, the actions they have taken to actively seek employment, return to the labor market, or improve their job opportunities. This accreditation will be done in the manner agreed upon by these organizations within the framework of mutual collaboration. Failure to provide this accreditation will be considered a breach of the activity agreement.
