The defendants 'Tito Berni' and Alberto Casero begin to collect their 12,507 euros of 'unemployment' from Congress

MADRID, 28 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Former deputies Juan Bernardo Fuentes Curbelo, nicknamed 'Tito Berni', of the PSOE, and Alberto Casero, of the PP, both investigated by the Justice, have already begun to collect from Congress the compensation to which they are entitled for having left their seats. Both will receive a total of 12,507.56 euros as a figure similar to the unemployment benefit.

The socialist Fuentes Cuberlo was forced to resign on February 14 after learning that he was being investigated for the corruption plot of the 'Mediator case'. On March 6, it was Casero who decided to deliver his minutes after an investigating judge from the Supreme Court recommended prosecuting him for prevarication and embezzlement during his time as mayor of Trujillo (Cáceres).

The two requested that the Congressional Board be paid the compensation that corresponded to them, since any deputy who leaves the seat and has been in the Chamber for at least two years, has the right to receive compensation for termination, incompatible with other income public or private. It is a kind of unemployment subsidy, since their lordships do not have access to unemployment for not being part of the Social Security system

The governing body of the Chamber authorized them to collect this kind of unemployment, the amount of which is the equivalent of one monthly constitutional allowance (3,126.89 euros) for each year of parliamentary mandate.

In both cases, the Board of Congress has authorized them to receive four monthly payments. As parliamentary sources have specified to Europa Press, Fuentes Curbelo has received the monthly payment corresponding to March and April in one go, since he had acquired the right since mid-February. The former deputy from the Canary Islands kept his minutes for three years, therefore he would have two pending payments.

On his side, Casero - who was a deputy for six months in the previous legislature and more than three years in the current one - has received this April the first of the four incomes that he will receive if his circumstances do not change.

And it is that severance pay is not paid all at once, but is divided and the Congress pays it monthly. This is so because this benefit is "incompatible with the perception of any remuneration, salary, salary, pension, allowance, compensation or perception of any nature, whether public or private", with which at any time the Chamber can stop the payment if it detects that the ex-deputy has other income.