Recovery of payments
The employee is obligated to inform the unemployment fund of all matters that affect the granting and payment of the allowance. If, after submitting the application, there are changes to the applicant’s circumstances that may influence the right to the allowance or the amount of allowance, these must be reported to the unemployment fund without delay. The applicant also has the duty to investigate matters over which there is possible uncertainty. For example, the unemployment fund must be informed of new social security allowances already after they have been applied, as opposed to until after the matter is decided.
If the unemployment fund is informed of matters influencing the payment of funding retrospectively, there may be cause for a recovery of the payments. The recovery of payments may also result from a statement issued by the TE Office retrospectively or due to an error occurring during the processing.
The Unemployment Security Act (1290/2002) stipulates that the fund must recover allowances that have been paid unduly or in excess. Allowances that have been paid in excess must be recovered regardless of the reason for overpayment.
Before issuing a decision on the recovery of payments, the unemployment fund will send a letter of hearing concerning the overpayment, to which the member may provide their own account of the matter and propose a payment scheme. Furthermore, the fund will often request an approval from the member for the revision of an incorrectly issued decision. If the member does not grant their approval for the decision’s revision, the fund will apply for the removal of the decision from the Social Security Appeal Board before issuing its decision on the recovery of payments.
The recovery of payments may be waived in full or partially if this is deemed reasonable and the overpayment of allowances did not result from fraudulent conduct on part of the applicant. The fund may also waive the recovery of funds due to the small amount of excess payments. In waiving the recovery of payments on grounds of moderation, the overall circumstances of the applicant or their family are assessed. This assessment is made on the basis of a report on financial and social circumstances. The report form can be filled and printed here (the form is only in Finnish and Swedish). Without such a report, the moderation assessment may not be performed. In assessing grounds for moderation, the unemployment fund compares the family’s monthly net income to, for example, basic amounts of social assistance or protected portions used in debt collection. Temporary lack of means or indebtedness are not considered exclusive grounds for moderation. Moreover, an error on part of authorities does not automatically constitute as grounds for moderation in the recovery of payments.
Misuses
The most common reasons for misuses are employment or received earnings that the member has failed to report to the unemployment fund in their allowance application.
Once the fund notices a possible misuse, we will send the member a letter of hearing on the matter. The unemployment fund evaluates, on the basis of the applicant’s response and the identified circumstances, whether the failure to report was intentional. If the suspicion of misuse is found justified, the fund must impose a sanction under the Unemployment Funds Act (603/1984). The sanction may be a notice, warning or expulsion from the fund. Under some circumstances, the fund is obligated to file a request for police investigation.