Claiming against the SEPE for a denied benefit or subsidy

The prior claim is the document with which you ask the SEPE to review its own resolution when it denies, suspends, reduces or extinguishes your unemployment benefit or subsidy. It is regulated in artículo 71 of Ley 36/2011 (the Spanish Social Jurisdiction Act).

It is an essential requirement: you cannot sue directly in the Social Court without having submitted it first. It serves to try to resolve the disagreement through administrative channels, without a lawsuit.

Although Ley 39/2015 (the Spanish Administrative Procedure Act) eliminated the prior claim in many areas, it is maintained for Seguridad Social (the Spanish social security system) and unemployment benefits, so it remains in force and is mandatory against the SEPE.

The most common reasons are: insufficient contributions, voluntary resignation (not being in a legal situation of unemployment), exceeding the income limit, not being registered as a job seeker or not renewing the application, and submitting the request after the deadline.

Each reason has its own defence strategy. Before claiming, it is advisable to calmly read the resolution and identify exactly which fact or calculation the SEPE relies on (see the table of reasons).

Many denials are due to calculation errors of contributed periods or documentation that the SEPE did not take into account, and they are resolved by providing the correct proof in the claim.

The timeframe is 30 working days from the notification of the resolution. If the SEPE never resolved your request, it is understood as denied by silence after 3 months, and the timeframe to claim starts from that moment.

You can submit it at the SEPE electronic headquarters (with a digital certificate, electronic DNI or Cl@ve, the Spanish electronic identity system), at the benefits office with a prior appointment, or at any public registry or by administrative mail.

The document must contain your identifying details, the act you are challenging, the facts, the legal foundations and the specific request, accompanied by the documentation supporting your argument. Managora drafts and submits it for you.

The SEPE has 45 days to reply to the prior claim. If it does not do so, it is understood as dismissed by negative administrative silence.

From the denial, whether express or by silence, you have 30 working days to file a lawsuit before the Social Court. The social process has no tasas (official fees) for the worker.

The arguments of the lawsuit are limited by what you have stated in the prior claim, which is why it is key to raise it well from the beginning and not leave it for the end.

The Active Insertion Income (RAI) is closed to new applications since 1 November 2024. Real Decreto-ley 2/2024 repealed Real Decreto 1369/2006 which regulated it.

Whoever was already receiving it on that date maintains it, under a transitional regime, until it is exhausted. If this already recognised right is suspended or extinguished, you can defend it through the same prior claim route.

The groups that previously accessed the RAI (long-term unemployed over 45 years old, victims of gender violence, people with disabilities, returned emigrants) now have the new reformed welfare subsidy or the Minimum Vital Income as alternatives.

The prior claim before the SEPE and the subsequent social lawsuit have no tasas for you. The cost of the Managora service appears, always updated, on the file of each procedure.

Managora reads your resolution, identifies the reason for the denial, gathers the documentation (working life report, contracts, dismissal letters, income proofs) and drafts and submits the prior claim for you.

If the SEPE does not rectify, we prepare and direct the lawsuit before the Social Court. And if you maintain an already recognised RAI and it is suspended, we defend it for you.