The countdown to Christmas has begun and while in some households the debate is who is included or not in family meals and dinners to meet the demands of the pandemic, in other families the dilemma is much less It’s raw: where do I get the money to meet the payments.
Many workers in the province of Castellón who are affected by a Temporary Employment Regulation File (ERTE) arrive in Ecuador in December without having received the amount of the benefit corresponding to the month of November, according to this newspaper, although the official number of affected by the delay is impossible to know.
Apparently, the bureaucratic changes introduced by the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy in the last extension of the ERTE (last September 30) as well as the change of the computer system would be behind these delays by of some affected in the collection of the benefit, as they have been able to explain from the financial institutions and the consultancies consulted by this newspaper.
Monthly listing
The reality is that many workers affected by ERTE, who to date were getting paid in the first week of the month, have still not received the income from last November.  «The financial entities continue ordering and advancing the payment to our clients in the first week of the month, but we place the order to our clients from the list that the Ministry of Labor provides us on a monthly basis, so there is no change for us and we continue working in the same way, advancing the money », they coincide in explaining from the different financial entities consulted.
Therefore, if the problem is not that the banks have changed their policy of advancing a benefit to the first of the month that the Ministry would pay until the 15th, the delays are due to other causes.
And it is here where the labor and tax consultancies consulted provide their explanation of the delays that many of Castellón affected by unERTE are suffering. Â «In the last extension of the ERTEs, it was agreed that companies had to re-process collective requests for their employees every month,” they explain. A bureaucratic change that has trapped a multitude of workers who had been collecting benefits with total normality.
As if that were not enough, the new procedure adds  «to situations that are being experienced in the ERTE, with workers who receive payments that do not correspond to them, for example, and that will affect the declaration of the Income for next 2021, where those affected by ERTE will have surprises, ”warn the consultants consulted.
In this way they explain that taxpayers who have seen themselves within an ERTE, although they charge less than 22,000 euros in total, if they have received more than 1,500 euros from a second payer, they must present the income and tax return will proceed to make the adjustment it deems appropriate. For this reason, the Finance Technicians union has advised employees to ask their companies to raise the withholding on their payroll in this final stretch of the year.
“Not listed”
Faced with all the problems exposed by those affected and endorsed by the advisers, the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy indicates that  «the processing and payment of benefits of workers in ERTE, in general, are not suffering interruptions and there are no special incidents in the province of Castelon.
 «Collective requests are sent through a computer system that has been improved to give more security in data processing, incorporates a verifier to ensure that the data in the requests is correct and has been enabled a unique system to communicate the variations, “they say from the Ministry of Labor.
Thus,  «in the case of workers who have been fully or partially hired, the payment dates are conditioned by the notifications of the periods of activity that the companies send to the SEPE», they add government sources.
Taxes
The difficulties faced by workers in ERTE who are experiencing delays in the collection of benefits are even more drowning if possible for those affected in the city of Castellón. Â «At the beginning of December we had to pay the garbage tax and the vehicle circulation tax, so we hope that the money from the benefit will arrive as soon as possible, we need it,” explained this same Friday an affected person from the capital of La Plana.
While waiting for those affected by the delays to normalize their situation sooner rather than later, the reality is that the ERTEs continue to sow thousands of families in the province of Castellón with uncertainty.
The latest data published by the Ministry of Social Security, corresponding to November 30, places the number of people affected by the temporary employment regulation in the Castellón regions at 3,406.
Despite everything, the evolution of the ERTE was positive in November compared to the previous month, since compared to the 3,652 workers in ERTE in the province in October, last month it closed with 246 fewer people in temporary employment regulation, up to a total of 3,406.
Furthermore, the trend was different depending on the type of files. Thus, in the face of the fall in the number of people affected by force majeure ERTE (-956), the condition of the rest rose, with 710 more workers and a total of 1,693.
It should be remembered that the number of people affected by ERTE since the outbreak of the pandemic and until last December 7 (last update of the Department of Sustainable Economy), has reached a whopping 46,341 workers in the province of Castellón, with a total of 8,259 files.
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