Earnings-related daily allowance or any other benefit paid out by the KOKO unemployment fund will be reclaimed if the payment was excessive or unfounded.
Causes for recovery include, but are not limited, to the following:
- payment of wages or other matter affecting the entitlement to a benefit or its amount, of which KOKO learned afterwards,
- a back-dated statement from the TE Office according to which daily allowance should not have been paid,
- a pension or other benefit granted retrospectively,
- a processing mistake.
How to avoid recovery
To avoid recovery proceedings, declare all your employment periods, holiday periods, days of sickness, other benefits, and changes to these in your application. Report all the work you have done and when you did it, even if you have not yet been paid for the work. Wages and business income must be reported to the fund once they have been paid. You must also declare to the fund if you have applied for a pension or other benefit, even if that benefit has not yet been granted.
If it is found that payment of earnings-related daily allowance was unfounded, the money paid will principally be reclaimed in full. If you have been paid too much daily allowance, you will be given a chance to make a statement explaining your side of the matter before the recovery decision is made.
Pension or other benefit granted retrospectively
If you are retrospectively granted a pension or other benefit for a period for which you have already been paid earnings-related daily allowance, this will result in recovery proceedings. KOKO will principally reclaim the excess payment directly from the body paying you the pension or other benefit.
However, sometimes the earnings-related daily allowance paid is larger than the pension or other benefit granted, and the entire sum cannot be reclaimed from the body paying you the pension or other benefit. In most cases like this, the remaining amount is not reclaimed from the recipient; instead, KOKO may waive recovery of the remainder. This is the case for instance if you have been retrospectively granted disability pension, partial disability pension, or rehabilitation support.
Consequences of non-declaration
If you fail to declare any matter that has a bearing on your entitlement to a benefit or on its amount, KOKO will evaluate whether such failure was negligent or deliberate.
In case of deliberate non-declaration, KOKO may issue a reprimand or a warning, or terminate your membership in addition to recovering the benefit paid. In some cases, KOKO is obliged to refer the matter to the police for investigation.