Social Security

As you will remember from a previous post I was due to visit the Social Security office in Alicante on Wednesday with our Administrator Alberto. However, on Tuesday a letter arrived from the Social Security Office giving the information we required.

Essentially the original payments due of about Euro 1270 were for payments missing regarding a cleaner and a gardener employed by the other faction in the name of the Community, and some payments not made in respect of Juan our gardener at the time.

Pepe wrote to, and visited the Social Security Office in Alicante to explain that the cleaner and gardener employed by the other faction were not employed by the legal Community, and therefore the payments should be made by the other faction. Social Security were not interested in the politics of the situation, as far as they were concerned, these two people were employed in the name of the Community, and the Community must pay. Pepe did not pay these amounts owing, and in due course two Inspectors arrived at Mi Sol Office, to collect the outstanding amounts. They left without any money, this happened on two occasions, after each visit a Multa (charge) was applied of Euro 3000. This is the minimum charge, we could have been charged up to Euro 60,000 for each visit !!!

We could appeal against these Multas, however I was advised that it could take up to five years, during which time the charges would be increasing, and the chances of winning the appeals are virtually nil. In view of this I decided not to appeal.

To avoid these sort of problems in the future I believe the Community should only employ outside contractors for any work we need carrying out, it is just not worth getting involved with agencies such as Social Security by having employees of the Community.