THOUSANDS of euros are being scammed from the office of social security by EU residents who despite having lost their jobs in Cyprus and returned to their country of origin still fraudulently claim unemployment benefit here.
The scam was revealed by labour minister Sotiroulla Charalambous in a letter to parliament after Green Party MP, Giorgos Perdikis had asked for clarification on the matter on November 19, 2012.
In her letter, Charalambous gave assurances that the measures were being taken to combat the problem. “Social Insurance has already located cases of applicants who sign-on for unemployment benefit and then leave the island on the same day returning a month later to sign-on again,” she said.
“The law for social insurance clearly states that unemployment benefit would not be given to applicants if they are abroad as they are classed as unavailable for employment,” she added.
Charalambous revealed that additional measures were also being taken, with the Office for Social Insurance sending out a written letter to those registered as unemployed, informing them they could be called at any time to sign in order to ensure their availability.
“The new procedure has been adopted and in the cases where the unemployed have continually avoided phone calls they will be considered unavailable for work and will not receive benefits during that period,” she said.
“If it is ascertained that the person is abroad then their name is immediately removed from the registry,” she added. “In cases where unemployment benefit was given mistakenly, a letter will go out to the recipients demanding the return of the amount,” she concluded.
In her detailed account, Charalambous revealed that between December 4, 2012 and January 15 of this year, a total of 315 calls were placed islandwide to check the authenticity of unemployment benefit claims.
From those calls, 62 were found to be working, abroad or did not answer their phones. Those 62 have been re-examined and depending on the outcome, those peoples’ benefits have been terminated or reduced accordingly.