The Social Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia has rejected an appeal by a recipient of Spain's unemployment subsidy for people over 52, confirming that he must repay the State Public Employment Service, known as SEPE, a total of 10,443.51 euros.
The ruling, issued on December 22, 2025 and registered under case number 6817/2025, found it proven that the man repeatedly hid income he was earning while collecting the benefit. The court ruled out any exemption from repayment under the doctrine of administrative error.
The case began on June 27, 2019, when the man filed his initial application for the subsidy for people over 52. On the form, he declared that his income from work, movable capital, real estate and professional activities was all "0.00 euros."
Based on that declaration, SEPE recognized his right to receive 14.34 euros a day for a period extending until November 2028. He then requested that payments resume on three separate occasions: in March 2020, in July 2020, and again in June 2021. On none of those occasions did he tell the agency that he had any income.
Earnings that tripled the legal limit, hidden for two years
Tax records cited in the ruling contradict the man's declarations. In 2019 he billed 12,805 euros in gross income, with a net yield of 1,295 euros. In 2020 that figure rose to 14,437.76 euros gross, with a net yield of 2,363.66 euros.
The activity generating that income was linked to the world of film and theater, according to the tax registration category under which the man had been listed since December 2017. The income threshold for accessing the subsidy stood at 9,450 euros a year in 2019 and 9,975 euros in 2020, meaning the man would never have met the legal requirement had he reported his real earnings.
During the proceedings, the man's defense invoked the doctrine of the European Court of Human Rights in the Cakarevic v. Croatia case, along with Spanish Supreme Court case law that, since 2024, has exempted citizens from repayment when benefits were collected due to an error made solely by the administration.
The Catalan court concluded that this doctrine did not protect the man, because the subsidy was not paid out due to any anomalous functioning by SEPE, but because of what the ruling describes as pure and simple concealment of data about his income. The court noted that this omission was repeated with every resumption request he filed.
A clear line between someone else's error and one's own omission
The ruling states that the man, far from being an innocent victim of an administrative mistake, failed to fulfill his obligation to inform the managing body truthfully, and persisted stubbornly in concealing from the administration data that would have cost him his entitlement. According to the court, that conduct rules out any application of the Cakarevic doctrine, which only protects those who act in good faith and do not contribute to the error that leads to payment.
The court also rejected the argument that SEPE had engaged in anomalous functioning, an argument the defense based on Article 121 of the Spanish Constitution. The Chamber noted that this article refers to damages caused by the administration of justice, not by bodies that manage benefits, and that there was no judicial error in this case.
With all appeals rejected, the ruling fully upholds the original sentence and requires the man to repay the 10,443.51 euros he collected between June 2019 and July 2021.
